Just One Night
by Kanryu
Summary: She had never told anyone of her secret, a secret that shamed her to this very day still. He, so different from her in so many ways, could very possibly be the one who is so alike her in ways that no one could have imagined, and also be the one to help. Hiatus until 2013.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! Hmm...this might seem early for a new story, since I've just finished **Gentle Lie**, but...school's starting soon, which means my senior year has arrived. I'll be very busy this year, so please don't get mad at me if I don't update. I also have a life outside of typing fanfictions! This story is also set in a different time period than Gentle Lie, so please tell me what you think of the introduction so far (: To the ones who are not new to me, I hope you guys will support this story if it interests you! To everyone, please give me your feedback on how you think the story is so far! Arigatou gozaimasu, minna-san!

Oh, and to people who have read Gentle Lie, I lied...somewhat. Gentle Lie isn't the first fanfiction that I've written. This one is. Gentle Lie is the first one that I've posted online for you guys to read. I wonder if you guys will notice a difference in the writing styles for Gentle Lie and this story? It's only slightly different for the first three chapters, but...not that much, since I wrote this story...almost eight months ago! Wow, time sure flies! XD This is my 'present' to you all, so to speak for...school starting again. *sarcasm*

P.S. Sasuke may seem OOC at first. He will change more to...his own Sasuke-ness in a chapter or two. Let me know if he is please! And there will be a few lemons in this story.

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Disclaimer : I wish I owned Naruto. Kishimoto-sensei's working so hard to get his chapters out every week.

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Sasuke felt as if his head weighed a hundred pounds. He struggled to pry his aching body off of the soft bed he had awakened on. The room spun round and round in his disoriented mind and Sasuke found it quite difficult to stop himself from emptying the contents of his stomach onto the comforter covering the lower half of his body. Lifting a hand to gingerly touch the place on his head that hurt the most, he found bandages covering it…along with the rest of his head. He cursed inwardly as he slowly began to remember how he had come to be where he was.

"_There he is! Get him!!!" screamed a man in a black suit with a crowbar._

_Sasuke, walking down a street carrying a book bag with a few books that weighed about five pounds each, stopped as twelve men surrounded him. Each man held a weapon of some sort, a gun, a crowbar, an axe, a... flamethrower?! and various other dangerous looking weapons. Completely surrounded with no one in the vicinity to help him, Sasuke was forced to fight for himself. Swinging his bag full of heavy books, he launched it at a man who was holding a wooden club. Caught off guard, the man toppled over as the book bag hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him out. _

_Running past the fallen man, Sasuke snatched up his book bag and ran for it, only to be blocked by other men of the gang. Two men caught him off guard from behind and pinned him to the ground while another wrestled the bag out of his hands. Struggling futilely, Sasuke sank into unconsciousness as a man swiped a hard object across the back of his head. _

"..........."

Sweeping the contours of the room with onyx-black eyes, an object of a vibrant colour caught his eyes, a magenta envelope. _'Nasty'_ he thought. He swiped the envelope from the bedside table and tore it open, restless to get to its contents. He never was one for patience.

_Uchiha Sasuke-san,_

_Uchiha Itachi, your brother, owes us a substantial amount of money. He was supposed to have paid it like a few months ago but he sort of disappeared without a trace. So we have decided to keep you here as a hostage until your brother returns the money he owes us. Don't worry; we won't hurt you unless your brother's debt remains unpaid for the next 6 months. If not, we'll ruin you for sure, worse than we already have. For the time being, please make yourself at home as much as possible. Oh yeah, sorry 'bout that bump on your noggin. You should change your dressings after you get up. First aid kit's in the cupboard above the toilet. _

'_Till then._

_P.S. You will get updated with the status of the debt every month. Food and supplies will be dropped off every so often. ~_

_Debt Owing: £ 500, 000_

Lips in a tight frown on his statuesque face, thoughts raced through the younger Uchiha's mind. His brother got him involved with debt collectors. 'Hn. _Another one. Seems like he's still borrowing money from people. He's going to get killed one of these days. And he's going to drag me down WITH him. Just like now. I'm stuck in a really made up room. Is this even for real? They even tell me where the first aid kit is and when to change my dressings. What kind of fucked up kidnapping is this? And what do they mean ruin "us" more? We haven't seen each other for a long time, and I believe "we" are already ruined enough as it is, the worst thing is probably kill us which is kind of a relief to be away from this sort of life...'_ His thoughts trailed on as he balled up the letter unconsciously in his hand. Distracted by his thoughts, Sasuke missed the P.P.S. at the near bottom of the letter.

_P.P.S. Company will be joining you shortly. _

_

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_

Settling himself back onto the pillow he was resting on, Sasuke stared at the mahogany coloured ceiling and drifted off to sleep once more.

"_Sasuke! They're here, we have to leave! Hurry!!!" screamed Itachi, holding a bag._

"_But why onii-chan? Who're they? We just got settled here! I don't want to run away again!" Sasuke yelled._

_Having no time to respond to the whines of his younger brother, Uchiha Itachi clapped a hand over Sasuke's mouth. Lifting him up, Itachi ran towards the living room window where a fire escape ladder was present just outside of it. Forcing the window open, Itachi's eyes widened as he heard the thundering footsteps of shouting men stop at his front door. _

_Quickly launching himself out the window with Sasuke, the two Uchiha brothers hung in mid-air for a split second before Itachi grabbed one of the rungs of the ladder. His feet slipped from one of the rungs and in mere seconds, the brothers were swinging in the air with one of Itachi's hands holding up both their weight. At that moment, the front door of their apartment broke from its hinges from the men's forceful hits. Recovering from the near-death experience, Itachi nimbly shinnied down the ladder with Sasuke; they both took off into the tearing night. It seemed as if the sky was crying for them, their lifestyle of always running away... _

Waking up with a jolt, Sasuke sat on the bed, blankly staring at the blue sheets covering the bed. Shaking his head trying to clear it of memories 7 years' past, he greatly regretted it as his head spun. Sighing as he got up, he grabbed the envelope and letter from the bedside table and threw them into a wastebasket. He then headed out the door in search of the bathroom. _'Going to kill him for letting me be kidnapped. Extra two lives for the swollen head and nausea it's causing me...'_

Sasuke slipped his way across the hardwood floor and opened doors until he found the washroom. Opening the cupboard specified in the letter, Sasuke found a massive first aid kit and put it on the counter beside the sink. Undoing the clasp holding the box together, a jumble of items exploded from the packed kit. Struggling to keep it closed, Sasuke grabbed antiseptics, gauze, and a few other items essential for patching up and cleaning his wounds. He left the items he needed on top of the kit after closing it with great difficulty.

'_.... What kind of idiot packed these so tightly together? Don't they know that this could cause some of the packaging to burst open and get contaminated with germs? It's so damn hard trying to find anything in here; everything's so cluttered...'_

Looking into the mirror, Sasuke found several cuts on his cheeks and his head swathed in bandages. Gently unwrapping the bandages his head was dressed with, Sasuke threw them into a basket beside the toilet. Stripping himself of clothing, Sasuke stepped in the shower and turned the hot water on full blast. Placing both his hands on the tiled wall of the shower, hot water sprayed onto the bump on his head. Sasuke gingerly touched the swelling, the throbbing of it making him flinch. Finishing his shower, he dressed himself before he got to work on his wounds.

Sweeping his slightly damp hair aside, Sasuke cleansed the bump with antiseptics and put a piece of gauze over it. Securing the piece of gauze with bandages and a clip, Sasuke disinfected the scratches on his face and threw the used materials into the trash can. Feeling lightheaded after the shower and redressing of his injuries, Sasuke set out to explore the rest of the house.

After finding a spare bedroom, a hot tub, an outdoor pool, a massive living room, a games room, a study room, a classy kitchen, three bathrooms and more, Sasuke could find no evidence of any human or organism living there besides himself. No spider webs, no dust, no unwashed glassware, everything was sparkling clean, and he enjoyed having the feeling of not having to do work for once. He remembered always doing the dishes, the cooking, the housekeeping and everything else. What sparked his curiosity was that there were two bedrooms on the 2nd story, and the second bedroom was neatly cleaned, swept up, and aired out... just like the rest of the house and his own bedroom.

'_Maybe I'm just thinking too much.' _He muttered to himself.

But why, though? After a lengthy exploration of the summerhouse, it became quite apparent that there was far more stuff than one person living here for six months could ever need. Even with his... kidnappers? Benefactors? He didn't even know what to call them now after surveying the structure and wealth of the house. It seemed like his charges were just giving him a free stay at this mansion before his brother decided to pay off his debts; even though he'd moved out and away for over a year, away from his brother and the monstrous debts he owed others. It seemed like he'd never be able to get away from them as long as he had Uchiha blood flowing through him.

'_What a pain. As always, he'll probably pay off the debt in time. He always does. This time shouldn't be of any difference than other times. His only bro gets kidnapped. Damn. Gotta save him. Bring money. Get back bro. Borrow more money, more debts, and onto the next kidnapping of the same younger brother. This cycle never ends' _Sasuke snorted. Looking around with a smirk on his face; another thought struck him._ 'Hn. The note said I'm stuck here for the next six months, and it said I should make myself at home, right? That bastard's going to use the entire six months to pay off his debt anyway. Always been his style, always will.' _With that, Sasuke whipped the door of the fridge open and casted his thoughts aside.

– **A week later – **

Cold air rushed past the immobilized pink-haired girl as she was dropped from a plane. Struggling to break free of the taut ropes that bound her arms to her side, she soon realized that her efforts were wasted. Fear worked its way into the heart of Sakura Haruno; the blindfold did not allow her to see what was going on. Ready to have her head bashed open by the force she would hit the pavement (or some other equally cold and impenetrable surface), she silently prayed that her death would be quick and painless. What she didn't expect however, before having her fall broken by a body of water, was feeling the tips of her toes slide across something smooth as she was engulfed by the enormous wave of water her fall had stirred up. She heard curse words before all went out of focus; she hits the pool's water surface and becomes unconscious.

Sitting on a floatation device in the outdoor pool, Sasuke had the iPod speakers that he had found in the games room blaring with music from the iPod he had also found along with the speakers. Closing his eyes, hoping to get some sleep while absorbing some Vitamin D, Sasuke was rudely interrupted by a commotion. Something landed in the area of water right beside his floatation device, and splashed water over him AND his speakers; the speakers made a funny crackling sound. It wasn't that he minded this particularly, but that something had hit the edge of his floating bed and capsized it, flipping both him and the floatation device over and up, dumping Sasuke into the cold water.

Not having taken a breath before entering the water, Sasuke choked on the amount of pool water he inhaled. Kicking his legs hard to get back to the surface to gulp in some nice, fresh, un-chlorinated air, Sasuke brushed past something as he surfaced. Gasping for air, Sasuke looked for the object or thing that caused the capsizing of his floatation device. Seeing a flash of pink, he dove towards the bottom of the pool; getting a closer look, he saw a pink-haired girl tied in ropes, unmoving. Agilely swimming through the waters to get to her, Sasuke pushed the girl onto one of his shoulders and swam upwards, into the warm, welcoming rays of sunlight and place where there were plentiful amounts of oxygen.

Placing the girl on the patio beside the pool, Sasuke got to work on untying the ropes binding her arms to her sides. Freeing her, Sasuke grabbed her shoulders and shook them, receiving no response. Laying her down onto the patio again with her face up, he performed CPR on her twice before she came to. Seeing the haziness lifting from her eyes as they slid into focus, Sasuke gave a sigh of relief as she struggled to get up.

As he put his hand down on the patio to push himself up, his fingertips touched a sticky, warm substance. Having had so many experiences and run-ins with gangs, thugs and debt collectors, he didn't need to be a genius to know that it was blood on his fingertips. Looking down, onyx-black eyes widened as they saw how much the area was covered with blood. Disbelief showing on his face, Sasuke located the source of the trickling blood, and it was none other than one of the wrists of the lady he had just rescued. Snatching a towel from the side of the pool, he held her wrist together with the towel to try to stem the flow of blood steadily streaming out. Meeting eyes with the pink-haired stranger, Sasuke gave an alarmed look as her eyes lost focus again and she fell forwards into his arms.

"What the hell?!"

Sasuke's debt : _£ 499, 001_

_

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_

And this is my new story! Reviews are much appreciated! Actually, without reviews, I probably won't continue with this story. I need reviews to actually know if people like this story or not, so I won't waste my time typing this for...non-existent readers ): I won't update this until...I have received **10 reviews**. Sorry guys ): So...review please! Much love! Oh uh...critical comments are always loved, but if you just have flames. Forget it.

_- Kanryu 08/28/09  
_


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, so one of my readers' reviews said she counted for 9 more reviews d: and since...I have nothing to do for these last few days of summer (rofl, I'm so tired), I decided to update!!! xD This however, will be my last update...before I head out for school this wednesday. I'm not sure have any one of you heard of the IB program. It's...a really not fun academic program, which basically shoves you to thinking like university students and marks you like a university student. Since I'm in grade 12 (senior year), this is the hardest year of IB =/ and I have a lot of essays and commitments this year. The Extended Essay is going to take up a lot of my time, since I was supposed to start it this summer, but...I haven't, 'cause I'm a lovely procrastinator. CAS hours isn't great either. CAS basically makes you volunteer a lot, and it's almost impossible to fit everything in with the Extended Essay and all the other IB things. I'm sure I've bored you guys out already with my...school talk, so, to things that relate to the story!

I'll respond to the reviews that have pondering questions!

**Naru-Vampire** : Sakura got abducted and tied up! Her wrist is bleeding, 'cause the ropes were bound too tightly and it basically...cut into her wrist. [Sasuke's] debt is actually Itachi's debt. His debt got slightly paid off, because while Sasuke's eating and doing stuff in luxury, Itachi's paying off the debt bit by bit! Sorry if that confused you ): YES. You do count as nine reviews. (: (: (:

**happy-smiling-cookie** : Yes!! It's a new story! I'm excited too :D :D :D I'm sorry but there won't be very much info on the CPR area ): It's not that I don't want to, it's just that Sasuke's...a [blank] (you'll find out this chapter!) and they don't really focus on the electricity between them when they're CPR-ing d: Sasuke's debt is basically Itachi's debt, Itachi's paying it off when Sasuke's living in luxury, and I really like your idea! o: The...do a good deed and pay off your debt thing. (: Sorry if that confused you! And thanks for your concern ^^

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TO CLEAR UP ANY CONFUSION TO READERS : SASUKE'S DEBT IS BASICALLY ITACHI'S DEBT. ITACHI IS WORKING AWAY AT THE DEBT WHILE SASUKE'S  
LAZING AROUND :D I'm sorry I didn't clarify it enough. My apologies ):

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Ack. Disclaimers. Maybe I should just do a main one for the first one and not do any for the rest of the chapters. Sounds like a good idea :D

**Disclaimer** : Kishimoto-sensei owns Naruto! Another note, Kishimoto-sensei, what the hell is going on with Sasuke? =.= READ THE LATEST MANGA CHAPTER GUYS :)

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Sasuke ran with the stranger indoors. He laid her out on the long kitchen table and sprinted upstairs to find the first-aid kit that was still on the sink. Returning downstairs, he threw away the towel and immediately went to work on the slit on her wrist. Unfortunately for her, the cut was deep and it was right across the main vein; the blood kept spurting and showed no signs of stopping. Slipping on latex gloves, Sasuke grabbed a few cotton balls and soaked them in antiseptic. Swabbing it across the cut, Sasuke quickly cleansed it and slapped a piece of gauze lightly on the wound. Inserting a thread into the tiny eyehole of a needle, he removed the gauze and jabbed the needle into the pale ivory skin of his patient.

The arm twitched a bit, either from the patient's sub-consciousness or how the needle and thread were tugging away at the skin. Five minutes later, Sasuke managed to finish the stitches and clot the bleeding of the young woman who was laid out on the table beneath him. Giving a sigh and stripping off his rubber gloves inside out, he threw them into a garbage can next to the kitchen counter. Turning on the tap with the back of his hand, he used the soap and water to clean and rinse his hands. Finishing, he dried his hands with the towel hanging off from the dishwasher and went back to his patient.

Stirring to the pain in her left arm, Sakura opened her eyes, only to see a studded ceiling. Struggling to get up, a pain in her left wrist stopped her. Lying flat out on her back, she noticed the uncomfortable surface she was on and shifted painfully on it. The wet clothes that stuck to her weren't helping out much either. Her mind still hazy, she didn't hear the approaching footsteps. A man with eyes as black as the dark of night stood above her; his hair black with hues of blue in it. Even if she was drowsy, she could certainly recognize how hot a man was.

"So you've come to? You shouldn't move so much, I just stitched the cut on your wrist. It's pretty deep, so you shouldn't try any strenuous actions to open it up again." Sasuke said.

Sakura's good hand went up to her head as soon as Sasuke helped her up. The room was spinning and she was feeling very uncomfortable. Leading her up the stairs, Sasuke led her to a room and sat her in a chair. As he made a motion of wanting to take off her clothes, Sakura gave a small shriek and almost fell off her chair as she tried to hit Sasuke at the same time.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Sakura tiredly screamed.

"Your clothes are wet, and you're going to catch a cold. And if I'm not wrong, your stitched wrist basically makes your hand immobile, which makes your movements difficult. Now stop hitting me, you're acting like I'm about to rape you." Sasuke impassively said.

"So you're expecting me to think that a stranger that I've just met and who is taking off my clothes isn't a rapist? It's not as believable as you make it to be." Sakura disbelievingly said.

"If I wanted to rape you, you'd be on the bed now, moaning. Are you really that uncomfortable with me taking off your clothes for the sake that you won't catch a cold?"

"What do you think?"

"Okay, here's the deal. Since your hand can't move and I don't feel like stitching up your wound again, I'll just blindfold myself and help you out." Sasuke grabbed a piece of cloth randomly out of nowhere and tied it over his eyes.

"Wait. What's your name and what are you doing here?" Sakura asked.

"That can wait." Sasuke replied.

With his hands, Sasuke blindly and gently helped Sakura take off her shirt. When his hands accidentally brushed her skin, Sakura would lightly jump at the contact and shy away from it. Sasuke would continue on like nothing was happening, as if it was an everyday thing to help an individual discard one's own clothes. After 15 minutes of Sakura easing gently out of her clothes, she was unclothed underneath a red blanket on the bed in the spare bedroom. Sasuke had left the room with her clothes and shoved them into the washer he had seen earlier during the tour of the house.

Sakura heard the door open. She knew who it was; there was only one person in this house for God's sake.

"Nice of you to open the door without knocking." Sakura mumbled.

"Nothing on you that I haven't seen before." Sasuke boldly said.

"What's with that cocky attitude?"

"It's not cocky, it's the truth."

"Right."

"What do you want to eat?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're not allergic to anything, right?"

"Erm…no?"

"Whatever. I'll wake you up later."

"Knock on my door first next time."

"Hn."

As soon as Sasuke closed the door, Sakura fell asleep and didn't care if Sasuke was going to intrude into her bedroom or not. She was used to being taken by surprise, and even if he did return, her tae kwon do skills would allow her an easy escape if he did anything funny. It's not that she didn't care if he molested her or not, it's just that…

Sasuke threw the clothes in the washer and looked around the laundry room for the detergent. _'I just gotta keep telling myself that she's sick, she's just sick, she's ill, I'm not doing this for my own enjoyment.'_ Finding the detergent, Sasuke threw in his dirty shirt as well and poured a capful of detergent into the machine. Putting down the container and flipping down the lid of the washer, Sasuke turned it on and left it, only to start cooking for both Sakura and himself.

_The lightning flashed and the thunder crashed. The house shuddered from the vibrations of the claps of thunder. Sakura loved storms. She would sit close to a window every time there was a storm and be amazed at the flashes that lit up the entire sky. Even though her mother and sister would tell her that was not safe, she didn't care nonetheless. She was always amazed by nature; ever since she was little she would question about everything, why the sky was blue, why the sky rained, and such. _

_Life was great for Sakura and her sister, Itoko. The three ladies of the house were happy and Sakura grew up in a warm family without the care of a father. She never wished for one, because the love that her sister and mother gave her was enough. Sakura was also a great scholar, she never asked for anything even though her family was wealthy. Her mother, Mizaki, and sister, Itoko, always tried to praise her with rewards for her scholarly efforts, but she turned them down. All she wanted was for her family to be happy and prosperous._

_Sakura thought her family and home was her haven, but everything changed when her mother got married to another man. The man was strange, just strange. She wondered why Itoko didn't say anything about it to their mother. When Sakura spoke to Itoko about the man, she would only cry. She didn't understand why. _

"_Onee-chan! Where are you? The storm outside is getting really exciting!" Sakura ran throughout the house excitedly calling for her sister. As she ran, the lights started to flicker on and off. She reached a closed bathroom door just as the blackout struck._

"_Onee-chan, are you in there? I'm coming in." Sakura reached for the door knob and twisted it open. Upon opening it, the hair clip that was in her hair fell. She kneeled down onto the floor and reached out her hands to feel the floor for her favourite clip that her mother bequeathed her. A hand from behind grabbed her shoulder._

"_Onee-chan?"_

Sakura woke up to a start as she heard a knock on the door. Sasuke entered the room in a dark navy shirt and grey sweats. Her heart was still pounding from…the _dream_ she just had. Unable to calm herself down, she turned herself away from Sasuke so he wouldn't see her like that. She just didn't want a stranger seeing her somewhat uneasy and panicky state.

"Hn. Someone not happy to see me?"

"N-No. You just c-caught me by surprise when you knocked on the door." Sakura stuttered.

"Food's ready. I'm not going to be your servant and bring it up for you. Get downstairs soon or else the food's going to grow cold." Sasuke said. "Do you need any help with dressing?"

"No. It's fine. Thank you. I'll be right down." Sakura steadily replied.

"Hn." Sasuke left the room with a click and padded downstairs.

Making sure Sasuke wouldn't be coming back into her room again, Sakura let her unshed tears fall. Every time that dream would appear, it would cause her to cry, no matter how unwilling she was. Slipping out from under the bed, she let her naked body hit the cool air of the house. Lightly walking to the closet, Sakura opened the closet doors with her good hand and stood, amazed at the amount of clothes in the tiny space of the closet. Struggling to grab a t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants from the hangers, Sakura took a total of five minutes to finish dressing. By the end, her wrist was heatedly throbbing.

'_Maybe I should've asked him to help me dress instead. My hand might not throb as much as it is now.' _

**Hello dear! Long time no chat!**

'_Oh my goodness. Are you serious? You're back at the worst time ever.'_

**So much for a lovely welcome back I was expecting.**

'_In your dreams, sucker.'_

**Speaking of dreams, you were having that lapse again, weren't you?**

'…_Yeah'_

**You need a psychiatrist, outer self. I don't want to feel like a lunatic.**

'_Shutting you out now. Bye.'_

**Hey, wait a sec—!**

Sakura exited her room and headed towards an open door. Happy to find that it was the bathroom, she checked her appearance so that it wouldn't embarrass her whatsoever in front of others. Even though her first impression with the person who helped her wasn't that great, she wasn't going to let her second impression be bad. Speaking of which, she didn't even know the name of the person who _supposedly_ saved her. He just claims that he did. Happy with how she looked, Sakura went downstairs to the table where the food was.

Sasuke was sitting there in front of three dishes. A massive bowl of porridge, a plate of…shredded pork? and a plate of vegetables. Although the dishes were pretty simple, it smelled amazing to Sakura, even though it might have something to do with how her stomach was growling. The throb in her hand was really bothering her though. Sitting down, Sakura lightly put her hands together and gave an 'Itadakimasu!' to give respect to Sasuke. Sasuke eyed her, surveying her every action.

"Umm…can we formally introduce ourselves now? I don't know your name and you don't know mine." Sakura uneasily said.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"Haruno Sakura."

Sasuke responded physically by picking up a ladle and dipping it into the white porridge. Scooping some up, he poured it into two bowls; one for him and one for Sakura. Throwing some pork into his, he pushed the plate towards Sakura. Using her good hand, Sakura threw a few pieces in there as well. Spooning the porridge into her mouth, Sakura was shocked at how good the food tasted.

"This is good!"

"Hn. Eat fast or else it'll get cold soon." Sasuke blankly said.

The only trouble while they were eating was when Sakura couldn't pick up her chopsticks with her left hand. She wanted some vegetables, but since her left wrist was injured and she was unaccustomed to using her right hand, Sasuke had to help her.

"Arigatou. I'm sorry about all this. I really am." Sakura apologized.

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to doing this." Sasuke said.

"Oh, so are you an older brother then?"

"…No. I'm just a medical student is all. I had a part time job at the hospital before this came up."

"I see…that's why you knew how to do my stitches and everything."

"Hn. Your hand's hurting you, isn't it?"

"No..." Sakura lied.

Sasuke took her injured hand in his and lightly touched it. Sakura flinched at the light contact and tried to withdraw her hand from him. Letting go, Sasuke retrieved something from a pocket in his shorts and handed it to Sakura.

"We'll change your bindings after dinner. When I threw your clothes into the washer, I found a letter. It's addressed to you, so here."

"Oh. Umm…if you don't mind, can you open it for me?" Sasuke gave her a look and opened it anyways.

_Haruno Sakura-san, _

_We regret to inform you that your family has gone bankrupt. Your sister Haruno Itoko-san is under our care right now, and she insisted that you be taken someplace safe until she gives back the debt she owes us. It's not that huge a debt, so don't worry about it too much. After 6 months, if the debt is still not fulfilled, then both of your lives are at stake. For the time being, please make yourself at home and cooperate with the not so happy-camper Uchiha Sasuke. By the way, food will be dropped off every two weeks! Have fun eating the massive amount of food we bestow upon the two of you people. The status of the debt will be given to you every time food is delivered. _

'_Till then_

_P.S. The clothes upstairs are for both you and Uchiha-san to wear and use. We hope they are to your taste and liking. _

_Debt Owing: £ 10, 000, 000_

"…" Sakura frowned at the opened letter.

"Not what you'd like to see?" Sasuke asked.

"Definitely not."

"Hmm…from the expression on your face, I'm assuming that you're stuck here with me, correct?"

"Mhm."

"And you're stuck here for some months 'cause a family member of yours is in debt."

"How'd you know?" Sakura questioningly asked.

"Exact same reason for why I'm here. Stories later, wound first. You're done eating, right? There's some more porridge in the pot if you want." Sasuke offered.

"I'm good, thanks."  


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After 20 minutes, the stitched wound was re-dressed and dry. A packet of ice was lightly placed on it to keep the throbbing down to a minimum. Sasuke and Sakura were sitting in the snug white, leather couches in the living room, opposite of one another. This allowed the two of them to look at each other's eyes when they were speaking.

"Story time?" Sakura childishly asked.

"They always say ladies first." Sasuke finalized.

"Fine, you prick."

"Hn."

"I am the youngest daughter of the famous Haruno Corp that once belonged to Mizaki Haruno. My mother was able to hold up the company by herself without the help of my deceased father. My older sister, Itoko always helped out my mother so she decided to discard her education for helping out the family." Sakura paused for a second before she continued.

"My mother remarried when I was 15, to…an unknown man. He had no status or anything, but Itoko and I didn't care as long as my mother was happy. She was always happy, that Itoko and I would help her out in times of need and that I did well in school and such. Two years after the marriage, mother and the man ended up in a severe car crash. Both of them didn't make it." Sakura's voice quieted down near the end. "Itoko had to take up the company after mother died. She's still too young to fully manage the company by herself, so she's always asking for loans from other companies. That's why I took business courses in university. She's not letting me get involved in Haruno Corp yet though."

Sakura looked down at the packet of ice on her wrist, trying to blink away the unshed tears resulting from the nostalgic memories.

"Guess it's gotten that bad this time. This is the first time that I've been taken away." Sakura quietly said. When she raised her head, she saw that Sasuke was looking the other way, as if he was giving her a little privacy. Quickly swiping the tears away, she put on a small smile. "So this is basically a mini summary of my life. You?"

"My brother Itachi and I were orphans from the start. He would take care of me at the orphanage with the other adults until he became of age. When he turned 18, both of us left and he always had ideas of striking it up rich. Itachi would spend the tiny amounts of money we had to gamble. He would always lose and later be in debt from all the loans. I moved out a year ago, to try to get away from the debts and lifestyle of having to run from the debt collectors. Guess it didn't work. I'm still tied in the end." Sasuke sighed.

"How do you have the money for medical school? You don't seem to be surprised that you were taken away either…" Sakura mumbled.

"It's not my first time. There's been several times where I've been kidnapped and held for ransom. He always manages to get me back in the end. As for medical school, doctors at the hospital say I have talent so they sponsor me."

"I see… "

"I'm going to sleep. Night." Sasuke randomly said.

"Wait, what? It's still pretty early!" Sakura pouted.

"It's 9:30pm. It may still be a little early, but a lot happened today. As for you, it's your wound. Less rest means the slower it'll heal which means the likelier chance of an infection."

With that, Sasuke walked up the stairs and into his room. Closing the door, he ignored the lock on the doorknob and made his way to the window seat. Navy blue and white cushions decorated the seat and he seated himself on them. The window showed the view of a dark and endless grass plain as far as he could see.

"_Onii-chan, where are we going now?" Sasuke looked up at his brother._

"_Don't worry about it, Sasuke. We're going to be living well now, even though we're not supported by the orphanage. We're going to get rich." Itachi eagerly said._

"…_How?"_

"_I'm going to gamble."_

"_Gamble what?"_

"_The money that our parents left us."_

"_I thought there wasn't very much left."_

"_There isn't. That's why we gotta wing it, Sasuke, so we can have chances of getting rich. Stay out here, but don't get caught, okay? Aniki will be out soon." Then, Itachi left Sasuke next to a garbage can and entered a big looking casino._

_Sasuke was sitting on a small chair he found by the garbage can and waited. Waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, until he finally fell asleep. He awoke to a large commotion and peered out from behind the garbage can. Itachi was running out of the casino with a black bag under his arm. He passed by Sasuke and quickly grabbed his arm, the two of them running away from the casino._

"_Aniki, what're you holding?" Sasuke inquired._

"_Forget it for now, Sasuke. We have to run!" _

"_Who're the people that are running after us, aniki?!" _

"_Don't look back; just keep running with me, okay?"_

_The two kept running and twisting around corners, and they hid in alleys for minutes on end. After several hours of running and hiding, Itachi heaved a sigh and slid down, the black bag beside him. The sound of men's footsteps had stopped and everything was pitched dark in the alley. Sasuke stuck close to Itachi, fearing that a random thing or person would just appear and scare him._

"_Aniki…it's really dark here." Sasuke whispered._

"_I know Sasuke, just bear with it for now." Itachi breathed._

"_What's in that bag? Why were those men chasing us?"_

"_It's fine, Sasuke. Don't worry about it. Let's find you a decent school and a place to live, okay? Not like the places the orphanage provided us. It's not good enough for you." Itachi half smiled as he put his hand on Sasuke's head. "You don't need to worry, just let me do the worrying."_

"_Aniki! You're bleeding!" Sasuke gave a surprised shout._

"_I just scratched myself on some bricks when we were running. It's nothing to worry about." _

"_What if it gets infected? You'll be in serious trouble!"_

"_How can you even tell I'm bleeding in the dark? You can't even see anything here, Sasuke."_

"_I felt blood on my head when you just patted me."_

"_Whatever, let's just get going."_

_Itachi roughly grabbed Sasuke's hand and dragged him out. The two then walked off to find a hotel to stay in, so both of them would have a roof to sleep under for the first night._

Sasuke continued to stare out the window from his seat. Stars were appearing and for once, he could actually see them, unlike how it was in the city. The sky was a clustered map, full of many different stars he had never seen before. As he stared at them, he wondered how Itachi was doing. He hadn't spoken to him for a year, and he was planning on going back to see him soon. He just didn't expect to be whisked away on another kidnapping journey with a huge welt on his head to boot, even though it'd just healed.

He moved away because he thought that if his brother finally realized how much the debts were affecting him, he would change for the better. Apparently, it seemed to have changed for the worse. £ 500, 000 is a lot of money and it seems to be the first time that Itachi's owed that much. And, the fact that he was stuck in the same house with a lady whose sibling also owed debts? It all seemed too coincidental. It makes him feel like he's being watched; he doesn't like it, not one bit.

_Sasuke's debt : £ 489, 534  
Sakura's debt : £ 10, 000, 000_

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And so, Sakura is introduced formally in this chapter! The two have debts o: and both their siblings have to pay it off while they live in luxury! I feel evil now, because Sakura's debt is so much more than Sasuke's. Hmm...I should put a notice next chapter that there are dark parts to this fic. It seems pretty happy now, but...in my summary, it does say that both of them have a dark history (: You finished reading, so review please!

_- Kanryu out 08/27/09_


	3. Chapter 3

**PLEASE READ NOTE BELOW : **

So hi there everyone! Yeah, I said I didn't know when I was going to update, but that doesn't mean I should only get like minimal reviews if at all...Thank you to the few who reviewed! That is greatly appreciated (: I like how a few others put this story on alert, and umm...I get e-mails for the people who do that. So, I **do** know who put it on alert and who don't review. Not to scare you in any way. It's the beginning of a new story, I want to see your feedback, your opinions on it, and such. Is that too much to ask for the beginning of a story? I really hope not =/ **I won't update until I get 20 reviews so...please do review.** I need encouragement please \(O_O)/;;;;

OKAY. So, other things that are hindering me is : school, and I just recently got a surgery. I'm in my senior year, as most of you guys should know if you read my A/N from last chapter and the chapter before. I just got back from my first week of school, and the teachers are already putting me into a bullet train of information. Which means I have lots of homework, and...I need more sleep, because I need to focus and heal up my surgery wounds ASAP.

About the surgery, it's really not where you expect it, because it's not my arms or legs or midriff or whatever. I had to get a surgery around my tongue area. No, not wisdom teeth. So for the past...week, I've basically been living off liquid food, which is not very filling. I'm almost always hungry, and I'm REALLY wanting to eat ground beef burritos with lettuce and cheese. *cries* I want to eat sushi too. I'm Asian! I... have a very wide range of taste buds lol.

And the bad part about this surgery is that every time I move my tongue, it bleeds like mad. Not kidding. I can't speak, I had to play charades for the 3 days of school so far. Actually 2, 'cause I had to miss a day of school since I couldn't stop bleeding. I also have a throat infection, which adds to the uncomfortableness of the pain where a part of my tongue got cut. Every time I swallow, my tongue jerks, and my throat is killing me like mad. So, when I try to eat solid foods, I basically have to be on tylenol so I won't feel the pain. And, I dislike painkillers. Scientists claim they bring your intellect down. But, I guess it depends on the person, right? I try to eat them as little as possible. So far... after a week, I've only taken 5. Which isn't a lot. The dentist LIED to me TToTT. He said it'd feel like a big papercut. Ahem. Papercuts don't hurt this badly lol. SO, ENOUGH OF ME RANTING. Thank you to those who read this...really long note.

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Disclaimer : If I owned Naruto, I'd make it end already. Not that I hate it, I wish an ending would just come out of it, instead of making new  
enemies and another new plot like ten years in. I'm sorry, Kishimoto-sensei. I still love you :)... and Sasuke. Definitely Sasuke and Kakashi x]

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**  
- Two weeks later - **

Sakura gripped the handle of a mop reluctantly as she swept the hardwood floor of the living room. She was not used to doing housework at all. When her mother was still around, she would do it and tell Sakura to study instead of worrying and doing chores around the house. After, Itoko would be the one telling her not to worry and still continue to do her studies. A maid was hired from time to time to keep the house and laundry clean. The broom was starting to hurt her hand; she must be gripping it wrong. The cut on her wrist had recently healed a couple days ago. Sasuke took the first opportunity to make her work when he could.

Speaking of Sasuke, he was lying on the couch with a medical book open on his stomach, propped up by his hands. His eyes were moving fairly fast along the lines in the book and he turned several pages before he spoke up.

"Eyeing me won't get the work done faster."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Hn. It's not. We both live here, so we have to make ends meet."

"Why can't I cook instead and you do the cleaning?" Sakura offered.

"Last time I let you cook, you almost burnt down the house." Sasuke retorted.

It was true. Sakura was trying to make fried sausages when she remembered that she had forgotten to put a tiny bit of oil in the sauce pan so the meat wouldn't stick to it. When she opened the cap, she accidentally spilled some oil over the entire stove, fuelling the red hot metal filament to burst up into flames. Sasuke had to dump the entire box of baking soda onto the stove to prevent the house from burning down. Oh, and the fact that the fire alarm went off and deafened both of them.

"It was only once…come on, people make mistakes."

"Yeah, the mistake could've caused both our lives." His eyes continued to absorb the fine print on the pages he was reading.

"Fine." Sakura grumbled and went back to work on the floor, turning her back to Sasuke.

Stealthily looking over the rim of his book, Sasuke took in Sakura's curves and compared them to the ones in the book. The section he was currently reading on was comparing anorexic women to average typed women. From how the book was explaining and portraying images of women with different types of eating disorders, he assumed that with the generous curves that Sakura harboured, she was definitely not anorexic. She wasn't fat, which was good; she wasn't skinny, which was another good thing. Best of all, she wasn't throwing herself on him just other women Sasuke had met before.

Sasuke didn't like being involved with women. He didn't have many good experiences with them. One, either they tried to seduce him to the point where he knew it was all an act to get him into bed. Or two, they just pretended to like things he liked, which was med; he hated fakes. He didn't try to hide how he hated women basically of the two sorts. Flaws would end up showing sooner or later no matter how hard they tried to hide them. Women would usually end up running away from him in tears or screaming something about a waste of time. Yep. Uchiha Sasuke is no lady's man. Well, he doesn't want to be. If he tried, he could probably do it. But he didn't want STDs, or rather STIs, in new medical terms.

(**A/N** : The new term for STDs is STIs, which is Sexually Transmitted Infections, but my friend and I made a small joke about this. We call it STIDs, Sexually Transmitted Infectious Disease. Please don't be offended. We just think that STIs sound kinda lame.)

Looking at the clock, Sasuke saw that it was 4pm. Putting a bookmark in the book so he wouldn't lose his spot, Sasuke closed the book and set it on the small table beside the couch. Stretching, he walked to the window-door that led out to the deck and the pool. It was a fine day, the sun was shining, not so strongly that it scorched his skin, but it was hot enough that made him want to dip himself in water.

"Hey, I'm going for a swim. You wanna join me?" Sasuke offered. He didn't have any perverted thoughts of any kind in mind at all. Honestly.

The next thing he knew, a broom was thrown at him and it hit his back and his head at the same time. The wooden handle of the broom just managed to scrape the part where he got the injury a few weeks ago. It stung a little but it wasn't strong enough to knock him out. His hand however, immediately went to his head as a reflex.

"Pervert." Sakura said as she stalked off towards her bedroom.

"Someone's sure got a temper." he mumbled as he put the mop beside the door and headed to his bedroom to change into swim shorts.

* * *

Sakura was under the covers of her bed when she heard Sasuke walking past her door. Thinking he was going to open the door, Sakura ripped the covers off her and decided to run to turn on the lock on her door. Tripping over a shirt she had careless thrown off this morning, she fell and landed on her face, causing a resounding thump throughout the house.

"Ughh." She reached her hand to touch her head in pain.

"Hn. Someone seems more excited than I thought." Sasuke smirked as he stood outside her door. Even though she couldn't see him, she could _imagine_ the expression on his face. And it pissed her off to no end.

"In your dreams, Uchiha." Sakura acidly said as she pushed herself off the ground.

"Oh, so are we going by surnames now? Finish the mopping when I get back, or just join me in the pool. Fine days like these are hard to come by, _Haruno_." Sasuke said as he walked down the stairs and out onto the deck.

She obviously couldn't join him in the pool due to her…insecurities and lack of a swimsuit. Oh wait…when she opened the closet this morning, she thought she had seen something in the corner. Throwing open the door of her closet, she rummaged through it, and to her dismay, there were indeed swimsuits, but they were all two piece swimsuits. All speedo-looking too. It wasn't that she had a lack of rack or ass, she just didn't want a guy she'd just met to see her in such revealing clothing.

Slamming the closet shut out of frustration, she looked out the window that overlooked the pool and saw Sasuke swimming laps. Propping her head up on her elbows, Sakura continued to look at him and the muscles that flexed every time he would raise his arm to propel himself through the water. She couldn't help but be entranced by the living, breathing person one storey down. He had an aura of coldness and stinginess, but he also carried a feeling of mysteriousness. It seems as if he has a barrier that he's unwilling to let anyone pass; only certain someones can be permitted through.

An idea hit Sakura as she continued staring down at the pool and its only inhabitant. Throwing open her door and running downstairs, she quietly grabbed a frying pan and some leftover rice from last night. Setting the pan on the stove and turning it on, Sakura emptied the small tub of rice into the pan. Using a metal spatula, she split apart the huge clump of rice into smaller ones. Allowing the rice to slowly fry, Sakura went through the fridge and took out two small bowls of chopped up vegetables and pieces of meat.

'_Good thing we have such an endless supply of food…'_ Sakura absentmindedly thought.

Turning around, she threw in the chopped up vegetables and meat in with the rice. Working the spatula like an inexperienced chef, she accidentally shoved some of the food onto the counter. Choosing to clean it up later, Sakura decided to add in the oil, afraid that she was limited in time before Sasuke came in after he finished his swim. Without even looking at the label on the bottle, she poured quite a bit of fluid into the pan. She quickly regretted it when an acrid smell reached her nose after she set down the bottle, causing her to drop the spatula onto the floor.

It smelled so bad, oh so bad. She felt as if her sinuses were on fire and that she wasn't ever going to breathe fresh air ever again. This was certainly the thing that's going to traumatize her for the rest of her life. Backing away from the stove, Sakura bumped into something solid. When she turned to see what she had hit with tearing eyes, an angry Sasuke loomed behind her. His face had a look of disgust on it, probably from the acrid smell and he quickly strode past Sakura and turned off the stove. He grabbed the hot pan and settled it onto one of the stove's cool filament after he put a pan lid on the pot.

He flipped on the exhaust fan as he walked around the house and opened all the windows, carrying an air of anger with him as he did so. Finishing with the task, he stood right in front of Sakura, making her feel intimidated with his menacing appearance.

"So, I don't think I even need to ask what you were doing, do I? Sasuke growled.

"I was…trying to cook dinner?" Sakura timidly replied as she tried to stop her streaming eyes.

"So instead of adding oil, you decided to add _vinegar_ into a dish of what seems to be fried rice, and ended up ruining the dish as well as probably killing about five billion brain cells for _each_ of us." Sasuke continued.

"Well sorry, I didn't know that I added vinegar into what I was frying. I thought that it was oil, 'cause last time I remember that was the place where we put our oil.

"Well if you tried to remember, that last fiasco with you and the oil basically almost burnt down the house and we ended up with no leftover oil, since you seemed to have fun dousing the stove with it. And we haven't received our two weeks' supply of food yet. It should be coming in any day now." Sasuke sighed and headed upstairs to change.

Sakura ran outside and onto the deck for fresh air. Inhaling large gulps of it, she got rid of most of the acrid smell within her sinuses, but a little bit still lingered. Sasuke silently followed her out onto the deck and shoved her into the pool without a moment's notice. Sakura went in hard, choking on water as she struggled to right herself so she could swim back to the surface. Her sweatpants dragged her down as she tried to reach the surface. Thrashing her legs, Sakura managed to get them off and quickly swam to the surface. Pulling herself up, Sakura started coughing up water as soon as she got a solid grasp on the side of the swimming pool.

Sasuke stood on the deck, looking at Sakura as she struggled to get back onto solid ground. He was worried and didn't know if she actually knew how to swim when he pushed her in. It was a gamble that he thought he would take, to teach her somewhat of a lesson to not fool around with the kitchen and whatnot. He also wanted to test how much of a fighter she was. But when she surfaced, holy shit did it take his breath away. The white off-shouldered shirt that already clung to her every curve when she was doing the housework already caught his attention, but this was totally different. The shirt was now see-through, and _everything_ can be seen. The colour of her bra and her toned stomach muscles was all for Sasuke to see. When she lifted her leg to completely lift herself out of the water, Sasuke couldn't help but stare.

So slim, so lusciously long and pale. He could imagine how it would feel if those legs were entwined with his after a passionate night. The feel of her legs against him, creating friction that neither one of them could hold back. This was the first time that he's ever felt this way towards a woman. Don't get him wrong, he's not gay, but he's never felt such a strong urge to make one person his and his alone. Sasuke was snapped out of his reverie when a voice reached his ears.

"You…—" Sakura stopped as coughs erupted from her mouth.

Sasuke walked towards her and grabbed one of her arms, trying to help her out. She willingly let him and she sat on her heels after she got up, panting and trying to catch her breath at the same time when she wanted to throw curses at Sasuke like there was no tomorrow. Tearing her arm away from Sasuke's hand, she shakily got to her feet. When Sakura started leaning to the side, Sasuke thought she was going to pass out, but was caught off guard when she heaved her whole body's weight onto him, causing him to fall into the pool. With all his clothes on he had changed into quickly before he pushed her into the pool.

Sasuke re-surfaced, spluttering water as he did. Sakura looked at him with cold and satisfied eyes as she sat on the edge of the pool, her legs dangling in the water. Swimming right up to Sakura, Sasuke easily lifted himself out of the water and sat beside her, admiring the sunset with her. After half an hour, the sun had set, and the pale glow of the moon shone across the face of the pool.

To Sasuke's surprise, Sakura took off her shirt, exposing her upper half and bottom to the world, aside from the black underwear that she was sporting. Her body bending into a perfect arc as she went into the water, Sasuke was snapped out of his daze as a small wave of water soaked his partly-dried shorts from earlier. Looking into the middle of the pool, he was met with playful green eyes.

"Men are all the same." Sakura sighed, shaking her head. Her damp tresses lightly skimmed the surface of the pool, making little ripples in the water. She felt oddly calm, so at ease, she just _knew_ that Sasuke wouldn't do anything funny to her.

"Hm… well, I can't say that all men are the same. You don't exactly see me going in after you and ravaging you till you can't stop saying my name." Sasuke smirked as he threw off his shirt and shorts onto the deck, leaving him only in his boxers.

"So then, can you explain what you're doing now?" Sakura lightly said as she easily treaded water to keep herself afloat.

"When a pretty lady's in the water, inviting a guy to swim with her, it's not very chivalrous of me to refuse, no?" Sasuke replied with a question as he slipped into the water.

"Cocky son of a—"

"You don't seem like the type to swear." Sasuke sounded surprised.

"Well, I can't say I'm a predictable person, either." Sakura nonchalantly said.

"Definitely not predictable. I thought you said you didn't want to swim with me earlier, since you called me a _closet pervert_. And if you really wanted to know, my intentions were quite _pure_." Sasuke emphasized the words that he thought mattered most in.

"Pure my ass."

"Hm? Did you just say that I'm allowed to touch your butt?"

"Now I don't believe you ever said your intentions were clean, Uchiha Sasuke." Sakura snorted as she swam towards the other side of the pool and grabbed a floatation device, away from Sasuke.

He treaded water for a few minutes while he thought about how she just said his name in the simplest but memorable way ever. It seemed so natural for his name to grace her lips, and he wanted to hear it from her again and again.

"Hey, Sasuke." Sakura said as the floatation device she was on neared Sasuke. One of her hands was trailing gently in the pool while she rested her head on the other one.

"Hm?"

It was so hard for Sasuke to keep his eyes off of her. It was like Sakura was playing tricks on him, lying on that floating bed, letting him see almost all of her. The moon made her skin glow a pretty white; it seemed like she was radiating her own light. The way her pink tresses were tossed carelessly over her shoulders made it look as if she was purposely trying to seduce him. All she had to do was straddle him and he would be hers. The idea might be crude, but it was true.

"What happened that day when I um…fell from the sky?"

"Well…let's see…" Sasuke said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I was on the floatation device that you are currently resting on. Then something fell from the sky and ended up flipping the bed like this—"

Sasuke swam underneath the floating bed and pushed up on one side of it, which caused it to capsize. Sakura went into the water face first and then under, bubbles rose to the surface as she choked on water once again. Sasuke went after Sakura and grabbed her around the waist and swam back up to the surface. Rescued person spluttered water as she tried to regain her breath. Pulling her along to the edge of the pool, Sasuke made sure that both her hands were securely on the side of the pool before he let go of his hands around her waist. After she'd calmed from her spasms of cough, Sasuke continued on with his story.

"Then I dove in after you to save you from the clutches of ropes and the prison of water. You started to bleed once I got the ropes off and the cut was pretty deep, hence the stitches you had earlier. My speakers got pretty damaged too. I miraculously found another one in another drawer…"

"Couldn't you just have—told me instead?" Sakura wheezed.

"Well…I could have, but it wouldn't have been this exhilarating unless you experienced it for yourself. You were rather unconscious when everything happened." Sasuke smirked.

"You're a jerk, you know that?"

"I've been told by very many women that they'd love to have my children. None of them told me that I was a jerk. But then again, you're unlike all of them."

"Whatever. I guess since I didn't _die_, it was fine."

"I wouldn't have let you die."

"I wouldn't know. As compensation for scaring me like that and just pushing me into the pool, you have to pull me around the pool." Sakura declared.

"…Why would I do such a thing?"

"'Cause I said so. It's not chivalrous to not listen to a lady." Sakura childishly smiled at him.

"…So what am I supposed to do?"

"Okay, hold on. Let me get on your back."

"…"

After Sakura was safely on Sasuke's back, Sakura gave the cue for Sasuke to start swimming. "Okay, go swim now." she smiled.

"For how long?" Sasuke mused.

"Until I'm satisfied."

"…That doesn't sound very good to me."

"Whatever! You just made me lose like ten minutes of breath back there, so I guess ten minutes." Sakura pouted.

"Okay, okay. Just ten minutes, got it?"

"Fine, fine! Just get going!"

Instead of ten minutes, it became half an hour, and then an hour. The two didn't know how much time's past, but they were happy to be in each other's company. The laughter that rang throughout the night only signified the fast developing relationship between the two and the hurt that will come when they separate.

_Sasuke's debt : £ 485, 114  
Sakura's debt : £ 9, 694, 073_

_

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_

So guys, can you please give me up to **20 reviews**? That'd be greatly appreciated! You've read, so review. Writing is so much harder than just reading.

_- Kanryu out 06/09/09_ _11:57am_


	4. Chapter 4

Hi. I actually wonder now if people actually read this story =/ I know school has started, but I am quite upset that people who bother to read it don't even review. Thank you to the few who do. It is _**much**_ harder to write than read. Like I said, school has started, so don't push for updates please.

_**I regret to inform you all, but if I don't get to 20 reviews for this chapter, this story will be DISCONTINUED.**_ Sorry to those who actually like my story. I don't want to write if people don't read. There's no point and it's a waste of my time and energy.

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Disclaimer : I don't own it. If I did, Sasuke wouldn't be going insane right now.

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She was so damn sore. They didn't get back into the house and into their beds until 2am. Sakura wasn't looking forward to today. Sasuke would surely tell her to do more chores. Lazily walking downstairs without bothering to check her image first, she heard Sasuke swimming laps in the swimming pool. At 11am in the morning to boot; her bleary eyes read the time from the clock hanging on the wall. She walked out onto the deck, a safe distance from the edge of the pool and squatted there, propping her arms up on her knees while her arms propped up her head.

"Ne, Sasuke. How can you still swim after last night? I'm so sore." Sakura squinted in the sunlight.

"I'm sore too. But if I don't work those muscles, they'll cramp up on me even more." Sasuke replied as he swam to the edge of the pool to match her gaze.

"Can I get a break from doing chores today please? Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee?" Sakura whined.

"No. The laundry hasn't been done for a week, and it's your turn. I did it last time, remember?"

"But I'm so tired." Sakura cried out.

"It was your fault last night for going so wild."

Sakura started unbuttoning her pyjama top as she got an idea. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her actions.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Well, since words can't persuade you, I suppose…I'll have to do other things to convince you." Sakura seductively said as she cat-walked it down from the deck.

Sasuke got out of the pool just as she was about to get in. "I don't want to know what you're planning." Sasuke solidly said.

"Mouuu, Sasuke!" Sakura pouted.

Sasuke stopped in his tracks when he heard her say his name in a cute voice. He slightly flinched when he felt her hand on his arm. Her skin was so nice, so soft and smooth and it would so easily slide over his when—

'_Don't think about it, Sasuke, don't think about it.'_ Sasuke thought as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"If I beat you in a fight, you do the laundry and everything else, okay?" Sakura bargained.

"I'd prefer not to lay my hands on a girl that way, if you know what I mean."

"Whatever. I'm not your every average day girl. Just let me stretch first." Sakura rolled her eyes at him as she took her hand off his arm.

"Just go sleep." Sasuke sighed.

"Admitting defeat already?" Sakura smirked.

"No, I just prefer not to lay my hands on a girl that way. I'm a gentleman inside and out."

"Lies. You're no gentleman."

"…Right. Whatever you say and whatever helps you sleep at night."

"So, no sweeping, dusting, laundry and the sort for the day?!" Sakura squealed.

"Yeah. Sweeping and dusting you'll do tomorrow. I'll do the laundry, but then you will be doing it consecutively for the next two weeks." Sasuke finalized.

"That's even worse than doing the chores now!" Sakura whined.

"You asked, I complied. Oh, by the way, you might want to close your windows when you sleep again. A really bad storm seems like it'll hit this afternoon."

"A storm? Like with lightning and thunder sort of storm?"

"What kind of storm? A snowstorm? It's the middle of summer, genius." Sasuke smirked. "You're not afraid of them, are you?"

Sakura pondered on what to say. "I used to love them, but not anymore." Sakura darkly replied.

She quickly strode to her bed clothes that she had shed earlier and bent down to pick them up, giving Sasuke a good view of her ass. Straightening her posture, Sakura squinted once again at the far away clouds, grimacing at the dark clouds that strayed in the far off horizon. Without a word, Sakura slid into her slippers then ran up the stairs and slammed the door of the bathroom closed. Sasuke stood outside and wondered about the chores to come. Laundry was already bad enough, but sweeping and mopping the floor too is just too much. Frowning, Sasuke looked at the distant clouds and saw small flashes of lightning going on. Maybe it'll pass before the day's over. He can always check the weather channel through their flat screen TV.

* * *

  
Lying on the couch, Sasuke turned off the TV with the remote and looked through the big glass windows and into the distance. He didn't know where the hell they were, for the weather channel _only_ kept telling them that the location where they were at was going to have a huge storm, albeit flashes of lightning in the distance. Apparently, the small flashes were only the beginning of the storm to come. All the other channels were…well, dead. There was only the news channel, the foods channel, and the weather channel. He could swear that everything was rigged. The not so bad part was that there was a DVD player, and he could see countless movies in the cabinet that supported the TV.

Sasuke gave a sigh as he stood from the couch and went into the kitchen. Sakura was back in her room after that episode in the swimming pool. Not a peep came from her and it was already seven o'clock in the evening; he had to get started on dinner. He walked up the stairs and lightly knocked on her door, waiting for a response.

"What is it?" a small voice came out from behind the door.

"I'm making dinner, what do you want to eat? Talking through doors is rather impolite as well." Sasuke interjected.

"…I don't want anything to eat."

"…"

"I'm just not hungry."

"Okay then. I'll leave something for you on the table if you want it later on."

"Sure, thanks."

Sasuke walked back downstairs, irked by Sakura's odd behaviour, and the possibility that something might get thrown against the house due to the wind picking up. He made a man-sandwich for himself and prepared a soup for Sakura. He also wrote instructions on a piece of paper beside the soup on how to microwave it; the house shouldn't be burnt down with these direct instructions. Sasuke quickly finished his man-wich and locked all the doors and windows around the house, making sure nothing would get blown in or out. Drawing the curtains closed, he then made his way to his room and closed the door. The rumble of thunder could be heard quite distinctively now.

In the other room, Sakura was quietly suffering. Her hands clutched her head, covering her ears to try to drown out the offending sound of thunder. Sobs escaped her mouth, but it was muffled by the blanket that covered her head. The tears that slipped from the corner of her eyes only signalled more to come. She felt much more alone that she had ever before.  


* * *

"Hey." Itachi smiled as he wrapped his arms around a woman who was situated in an office chair.

The woman leaned back into his embrace and raised a hand only to set it down on his. A sigh escaped her tired lips only to be replaced by a small smile. The pen that she was holding was dropped onto the papers on her desk; blank spaces on the papers were waiting to be filled out by the black ink pen.

"What's up?" Itoko sighed.

"Nothing much. Just wanted to check out how things were."

"It's about time we give them their two weeks' supply of food. And was it really necessary, once again, to have knocked out Sasuke?"

"He's fine. Little bro's experienced more than this. How're the expenses?"

"Well…they're actually doing pretty well. I guess they're hanging out around the pool a lot. The electricity bill is much lower than I had anticipated, and basically that's it. It's a bit surprising, really."

"You mean how Sakura's going swimming even with a man in her company?"

"…Yeah, especially that part."

"Who knows? Maybe it's time we get them a computer, what do you say about that?" Itoko asked.

"Well…our stocks are going up pretty damn well. It can't hurt to give them something nice. We gotta restrict their sending emails and any messages of any sort. We can't have them figuring all this out." Itachi thoughtfully said.

"I suppose. But do you think it's alright for us to be celebrating? It's only been a month since they've moved in and only been a little while since we bought those stocks. I'd like to be out of debt soon or…" Itoko trailed off.

"Don't worry. Nothing will happen to both of our siblings or us." Itachi reassured her.

"I…hope you're right, Itachi. I hope you're right."

"I haven't lied to you before, have I?"

"No, you haven't. And to be honest, was kicking both of them away to a summerhouse really necessary? We needn't have said anything to either of them."

"I didn't want your sister to know that you're…active, already with what happened before. Besides, Sasuke needs a break. I've already told his school and the doctors that he works with that he's gone on vacation."

"It's not going to matter anyway, what with my history of men." Itoko grumbled.

"I call that rape." Itachi softly said.

"It was partly willing, so it was sex."

"You only wanted to keep the company running, and besides, the first time wasn't your fault."

"I only wanted to protect her, but…in the end…"

"Not everything can be prevented, _querida_."

Itoko blushed at the name Itachi called her by. She barely knew any Spanish, but even a small word like this could be understood by her. Was she already his 'sweetheart' after only knowing each other for roughly a year? They've seen each other naked more times than she could count and ought to, but she isn't regretting anything as of yet. She jumped in her seat as Itachi's fingers lightly brushed across her slightly visible bra strap through her white business shirt. It was just too hot to wear a jacket over it.

Itachi chuckled. "Glad to see you're still so spirited. You're going to have a long night ahead of you."

"You're so dirty." Itoko responded as she turned her face away from him.

"Hm. You're the one who initiates it."

"Initiates what?"

"The dirtiness."

"You perplex me sometimes." Itoko grabbed her bag and slung her jacket over her arm and stalked out of her office, her cheeks flaming red hot.

Itachi calmly walked out after her and locked her office before he left. No one was left in the bureau, it was already 8pm. They always ran overtime whenever they didn't have to. Their business was slightly booming, so he wasn't complaining. He was already paying off the debt really well. And spending nights and time with this purple-haired lady really makes his time worthwhile. It wasn't just her body or her looks, her personality was really attractive to him. The only thing he would like, though, was for her to forget her history and just think about the future and not too much of the past.

"Itoko, wait up." Itachi somewhat jogged up to her to prevent the elevator doors from sliding in his face and leaving him alone in the office building.

"…"

Inside the elevator, the two were silent, with Itoko's head down while Itachi was just looking at her with an amused expression. Stealthily taking her hand, Itachi smiled as she twitched when he did so.

"You're so cute." Itachi drew her close and mumbled into her hair. She responded only by burrowing her head into the crook of his neck.

* * *

  
Sasuke went downstairs in the early morning only to see Sakura's dinner still on the table. She hadn't even touched it; not one bit. A tiny bit frustrated, Sasuke crossed his eyebrows and was about to re-heat it when he noticed a sizeable bag in the middle of the swimming pool. He walked out to the pool and realized that it was another food bag; one much bigger than the last. Not wanting to get wet for once in the early morning, Sasuke grabbed a metal pole from the side of the deck and hooked the bag onshore.

Emptying the contents onto the kitchen table, he found a laptop, and a desktop PC. Holy hell was it heavy. No wonder he had difficulty lifting the bag up. Two computers including two weeks' worth of food is torturous to haul up without a medium to help him. There wasn't as much food as last time, but maybe they figured out either they couldn't eat up that much food, or the technology in the bag just took up all the space. He could care less. A computer meant interaction with the outer world! A note was stuck onto the laptop and another one was stuck onto the PC. Apparently, his name was on the laptop whilst Sakura's was on the desktop. No choices there.

Sasuke carried his laptop upstairs to his own room and dropped off Sakura's desktop at her door. It was already 10am and yet not a peep from the pink-haired girl. The storm last night was pretty wild; he planned to check things out after everything was alright in the house. Booting up his notebook, Sasuke figured out that he wasn't allowed to send emails to anyone but his brother. It was like the people who gave him stuff restricted him from doing anything! He could play games, solitaire and all that crap, but what about interaction with the outer world!? Even on MSN messenger, his brother was the only one on his contacts list, _and_ he was offline to boot. Somewhat angered, Sasuke decided to leave his laptop and go out for the walk.

A few small trees were blown down and flower petals and leaves were everywhere. Birds' twitter could be heard and Sasuke was getting irritated by it. The damage wasn't as bad as he thought it was, and he was thankful that a tornado didn't spawn anywhere near. He didn't even know if tornadoes were common in the area the two of them were in. If one did, they were quite screwed; it was all flat ground, making it easy for the tornado to just rip the two of them off the ground and scatter them, well… elsewhere and dead. Aside from that, a lot of leaves and dead insects were in the pool, so he decided that it wasn't very pleasant to swim in it for a while. Cleaning was in order.

Sasuke entered the house only to hear small and rustling sounds from upstairs. He arrived at Sakura's door and opened it without knocking and found her curled up underneath her blankets. At the sound of the door opening, Sakura looked up at him, her eyes swollen with dark bags under them, surrounded by a pale face. Disturbingly surprised, Sasuke settled himself at the foot of her bed, his hand reaching out to touch her forehead.

"I'm not sick." she croaked. Sakura brushed his hand away gently, only for him to leave his hand comfortably on her shoulder.

"Hn. It was just one storm, there's no need to be scared with me around. I'd tell you if anything was incoming." Sasuke ascertained.

"I know. Some things are just…hard to handle." she said lamely.

"Everyone has a history. Be it happy, dark or in between. It affects who we are and what we become. It doesn't make us any cleaner or dirtier than the rest of the human population." he distantly said.

Sakura closed her eyes as Sasuke said those words. This man, seeming so innocent and calm, seems to have experienced his fair share of pain. It was as if he could relate with her, to feel the pain that she is currently feeling. Maybe she could finally…open up to people again. Sitting up, she leaned forward and hugged Sasuke around the torso, her head resting on his shoulder. He froze, but after a few seconds, his arms gently wrapped themselves around her.

"I'm sorry about this. Can we stay like this for a little while?" Sakura softly asked.

"Hn."

-----------

How glad he is to have taken that psychology course. Not only does he have to put up with a lady who doesn't know how to do housework, he also has to help her unravel the thing or things that have traumatized her in the past. Troublesome, as one of his friends would say. At least she's gone back to sleep, instead of crying her eyes out over a storm. Or was it the storm that had her like that? She did seem awfully concerned about the incoming storm when he told her yesterday. It must've been something like that. No twenty-four year old would weep that badly over a storm that blew down a few young trees.

Sasuke turned on the TV and made the volume go down to a bare minimum as he prepared the soup from last night. The weather channel once again told them that isolated thunderstorms were going to appear _tonight_. Why night time out of all hours of the day? Couldn't it have been the freaking afternoon? For heaven's sakes, he just finished comforting a woman who seemed like she couldn't take another hit after that…hit. Maybe not telling her would be better…or for worse. Telling her doesn't seem all that good. That would just once again leave her moping in her bed.

He flipped to the Foods channel and watched it as he ate his soup. A movie didn't sound good at the moment, or the news or the weather channel. Just one night of a storm is bad enough, more doesn't seem very welcoming to his mind. The hamburger piece sizzling on a frying pan on TV isn't helping his mood out either. Small footsteps caught his attention and he turned around to greet the pink head who had finally decided to get up.

"Hey." Sasuke greeted her.

"Sorry about earlier." Sakura quietly said.

Why did she look so small? The big t-shirt that she sported went midway to her thigh and it was slightly slipping off her shoulders. Her pale face wasn't helping. It just made her look ill and…unhealthy. Also, it was as if she just saw a ghost, which she might have, since her appearance has totally changed from yesterday whatsoever.

"I told you it was all right. Don't worry about it. Everyone has their times." he brushed off.

"I guess…"

"I'll make you something, since I just ate your soup." Sasuke busied himself to make something for Sakura.

"You don't—"

"You haven't eaten for exactly twenty-eight hours and you're going to tell me you're not hungry? I'm not believing that." he finalized.

"…Fine."

_Sasuke's debt : £ 421, 154  
Sakura's debt : £ 9, 001, 573_

* * *

It does NOT hurt to review. You've read, so review please. _**Reviews mean encouragement and support.**_

_- Kanryu _out 18/09/09


	5. Chapter 5

Hey again. I'm happy I got reviews, I really am. Thank you guys so much. So I won't discontinue the story...for now. As a writer, reviews are a necessity. I'm not kidding. I regret to inform you all, but I actually really won't be updating for a while. School events have just caught up with me, and I just figured out I won't be home for 3/4 of the week next week and about 1/2 of next month, so I have a lot of things to get finished. Sorry to the guys who anticipate my stories (:

_**40 reviews or no update.**_

P.S. Check out my new story - **With Just One Touch**

Disclaimer : Nopes.

* * *

**  
- A month later - **

Snapping her tired eyes open, Itoko found Itachi licking her shoulder in a sensual way. Gently but firmly shoving him off, Itoko went back to sleep with the blankets clutched more tightly around her frame. Last night was too extreme for her to get up right now. She doesn't even remember how many times they've done it. She felt sore and…did she mention exhausted?

"Itoko…" Itachi trailed off.

"No, Itachi. We're not doing it again." she mumbled to him.

"It's not that. You're going to be late for work if you don't get up."

Itoko looked at her digital clock and yelped in surprise. It was half past seven and she had to get to work in half an hour. She grabbed the sheets and pulled them around herself and ran for the bathroom. Itachi chuckled at her frenzied actions and sat at the foot of her bed, arranging her clothes for her.

"ITACHI! Why didn't you tell me!?" Itoko whined.

"Well, I know you can get ready in fifteen minutes tops, so I decided to let you sleep in. I already bought breakfast too. Besides, last night was pretty exhausting, don't you think?" Itachi smirked.

"…Get my clothes ready."

"Already done."

20 minutes later -

"I still can't believe you waited for the last half an hour before waking me up. What if I couldn't get up?!"

"That was easy, I would've just—"

Itoko clapped a hand over Itachi's mouth just as he was about to propose his dirty ideas. She continued to munch on her favourite chicken egg salad sandwich that he had gotten for her from Tim Hortons (**A/N**: Donut/sandwich/fast food place in Canada). She thought it was a pretty good deal; it came with a raspberry donut to boot. He also got her an iced coffee. The two rode in silence for the rest of the trip. When they reached the company, she was still sipping her coffee as they entered the elevator to go to their bureau.

All her employees were already at their desk, working away like there's no tomorrow. Itoko couldn't blame them. They were all hardworking, and they had families to uphold. She would give them a bonus occasionally whenever she could, to help them out with their lives for their hard work. After she settled herself in her office and Itachi in his own, she noticed a note on her desk. It was about the progress of Sasuke and Sakura in the far out countryside of well, basically in the middle of nowhere.

_Chère Madame Haruno,_

_Le progrès d'Uchiha Sasuke et Haruno Sakura est très étonnant. Elle communique avec Sasuke normalement et elle est très bonne. Cependant, un orage est arrivé un soir et elle est restée dans son lit tout le soir. Penses-tu Sakura a besoin de médecines pour sa problème?_

_Ah, pour le jeune Uchiha Sasuke, il est bon aussi. Mais, il ne comprend pas pourquoi Sakura a peur des orages. __C'est un mystère pour lui._

_C'est tout. _

_Shikamaru_

Itoko ran out of her office, her heels rapidly clicking on the hardwood floor. Throwing open Itachi's door, she ignored the alarmed looks of her colleagues and stepped in. After she closed–slammed– the door behind her, she slapped her hands down on his desk and shoved the note in front of him.

"Vois la note." she demanded.

"Honey, I don't speak French and I can't read or understand it." Itachi patiently said.

Itoko grabbed a pen off his desk and pulled the pen lid away with her teeth which he found seductive. Quickly scribbling a translation on the back of the note, she once again shoved it in front of her lover. Itachi scanned the note quickly, his mouth setting into a small smile after.

_Dear Ms. Haruno,_

_The progress of the relationship between Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura is truly amazing. She communicates with him normally and is doing fine. However, a storm arrived one night and it made her stay in bed for the whole duration. Do you think she needs medication for her issue?_

_As for the young Uchiha Sasuke, he is also doing quite well. But he doesn't understand why she is afraid of storms. This is a mystery to him._

_That is all._

_Shikamaru_

"So they're doing just fine. Aren't you happy about this?"

"Oui, mais—"

"Itoko, you're using French again."

"Yes, I'm happy about their progress, but didn't you read the _big_ part on where Sakura's relapsing again?"

"Technically, the note is short, so you can't really say her…problem is a big part of the note. And yes, I did read that. What can we do about it?"

"She refuses to go on pills, because she understands that once she goes on them, she can't stop. Do you think we should still send them to her anyway?" Itoko worried asked.

"I don't believe so. She personally said she doesn't want them, right? Why force her?"

"Sometimes, people don't know what's best for themselves."

"She's old enough to take care of herself. She's not seventeen anymore." Itachi softly added.

"But—"

"No buts, with Sasuke there, things can be solved. I know it. By the way, our employees seem to be very interested in what with your shouting from a little earlier."

Itoko turned around only to see almost all her workers outside Itachi's window, stealthily looking in. Blushing, she waved a hand at them and shooed them away. They scrammed.

"By solved, do you mean getting her laid? 'Cause I don't want her getting raped. I'll personally castrate your brother if he does." Itoko warned.

"It won't be rape, my love. It's called sex when it's willing." Itachi smirked at her which made her heart flop.

* * *

The lights flickered as a freak storm neared the summerhouse. Two pairs of eyes darted to the nearest lights and stayed there for a few seconds before resuming their previous activities. Sasuke continued with his shower, not caring about the oncoming blackout whilst Sakura slapped down her book and ran to the cupboards. She started to frantically search through them in hopes of finding matches, candles or flashlights. Just as she reached for the handle of a drawer, a bolt of lightning flashed about the summerhouse. Sakura yelped as the lights extinguished all at once, and fell to her knees as she tried to block the offending rumble of thunder with her arms.

Flinching at the sound of thunder getting louder with every second, Sakura quickly got up from her kneeling position. She ran towards the only room which she knew had no windows – the bathroom on the second floor. Upon arriving there in a split second, Sakura did not notice the towel hanging on the knob of the bathroom door that signified it being occupied.

Sakura flung the door open and slammed it shut. Facing a corner and then falling back into her kneeling position from earlier, Sakura felt more at ease at not being able to see the frightening flashes of lightning that threatened to burn her to a crisp. However, the resonating sound of thunder started to shake the entire house, and since she was on the second floor, it only added to her fear of being hit by a bolt of lightning. Stiffening as déjà vu suddenly hit her, she remembered that "one time" where she was sitting in the same position and somewhat similar corner.

_Grabbed roughly from behind, Sakura was turned to her front and pushed against the wall. Not having enough time to react to the offensive movements, Sakura found something soft pressing against her own lips. Struggling to free herself from the attacker, Sakura found it to be useless; her wrists were captured in a vice like grip by the assaulter's hands, her head immobile from something soft pressing against her lips, and her body pressed down by something soft as well. Catching the scent of the violator of her personal space, she remembers it as being familiar. _

'_It can't be... no... he can't do this to me. I can't get out of this, he's too strong... I have to tell onee-chan!!!'_

Tears leaking out from the side of her eyes and still shivering vulnerably against the tiled floor of the bathroom, Sakura failed to hear the swish of the shower curtain being pulled back and her name being called. Wet footsteps padded noiselessly across the tiled floor, Sasuke wrapped his two arms around Sakura's waist and lifted her up to a standing position, with her back against his front.

_Her wrists held above her head in a tight grip, Sakura could do nothing but allow her body to be desecrated. Fingers ran over sensitive parts of her body, Sakura willed the fingers to stop but it continued nevertheless. Her eyes shot open as a hand started to unbutton her shirt and grope the naked skin on her exposed belly. She was dragged up, and then her back was parallel to the front of a man's body. As a hand descended to the button and fly of her jeans, Sakura let out a sob and shut her eyes tightly, she knew what was going to happen next... not bothering to struggle anymore._

The girl in his arms went limp; her knees sagging to the floor. Sasuke, surprised by the sudden weight on his arms, almost dropped Sakura altogether. Readjusting his arms to attempt to pick her up again, he felt her torso hitching up and down, like she was... crying. Tiny gasps did not go unheard with Sasuke's sensitive hearing, and he immediately froze in place, not knowing what to do with a soon-to-be hysterical woman. He slowly brought her back to her feet, and pulled Sakura towards him, cushioning her with his body still wet from the shower. Resting his head near Sakura's ear, he stayed silent for a few minutes, before he said to her a few words that made Sakura trust him completely ----

"It's okay. There's nothing to be afraid of. I promise."

* * *

Sakura's eyes widened as she felt a pair of arm snake their way around her waist. Her thoughts were jumbled as she couldn't tell the difference between reality and déjà vu. When she felt something soft press into her back, encasing her, she thought she was reliving her nightmare; the nightmare that haunted her for years, and still haunted her to this very day. A new flood of tears rushed down her cheeks, soaked the tip of her hairs, and the front of her shirt as she thought of what was to come in the next few moments of her "déjà vu", until she felt a pair of arms encircling her waist.

It's either her déjà vu that's playing tricks on her or her mind, but... this nightmare, it's... different this time, she can feel that it's not just raw lust, but... warmth, the thing she's been wanting to find from a person for a long time, but have never received any. She felt protected from... just everything; the last time she's been embraced like this was a few years back, shortly after the first "nightmare". Leaning back into the comforting embrace, Sakura closed her eyes as tears silently streamed down her puffy cheeks. The storm outside went unnoticed by the two standing next to each other in the darkened bathroom; they relished in each other's company, forgetting the storm outside.

Water droplets dripped from Sasuke's hair and onto Sakura's shirt, causing her to shiver albeit the warmth emitting from Sasuke's arms and body. The front of Sakura's shirt was entirely soaked; her crying from earlier drenched it to the point where it started to be wrinkled. Not wanting to show a sign she was getting cold, Sakura tried to suppress her starting-to-be uncontrollable shivering from Sasuke. No matter much how Sakura tried, Sasuke's sensitivity allowed him to notice her physique shivering. An idea struck him, altering the position of his arms as to not hurt her; he lifted Sakura up and placed her in the shower. Before drawing the curtains around Sakura to shield her from his view, he turned on the shower letting it pour warm water on her, not once looking at her face. Finished with his task, Sasuke stepped away from the shower, allowing the curtains to cover the image of the tear-stricken face girl.

Headed for the door, Sasuke was stopped by a tug on the towel around his waist, threatening to leave him exposed. Not that he minded walking around naked without anything to cover him up, but the fact that a calmed-down hysterical woman seeing him naked around the house probably won't do both of them any good. Hand quickly grasping the slipping towel, his hand knocked into a warm, smaller hand. Instead of knocking it away, he held onto it, not because his towel would fall if he let go, but because he knew he had to.

"Don't go. Please. Don't leave me alone." pleaded Sakura in a barely audible voice.

Pushing back the curtains revealed Sakura still fully clothed, but drenched as hell. Vulnerable. Scared. Traumatic. Sasuke doesn't know which words can describe the Sakura kneeling on the bottom of the bath tub. So different from the one he sees during... normal days? Cheerful, bright, spiteful and whiplashing. Where's the Sakura that he usually sees acting around him? Was there something that's happened before she met him that caused her to be this traumatized...? Whatever it was, Sasuke didn't like being kept out from Sakura's past events, he didn't know why; he just... didn't like it was all. All he knew was that Sakura needed someone to be there for her right now and well... there really isn't anyone there for say... about 1000 miles or more? Pretty convenient in a situation that he's in right now. Pushing aside those thoughts, he focused on the situation at hand; he had a patient to deal with.

With Sakura's hand still in his own, Sasuke gets into the bathtub and stands in front of Sakura; the bathtub just barely fitting the two of them. Hot water now running over them both, Sakura stays still, staring at the smoothly studded bottom of the bathtub. With the intention of giving Sakura a hug, he slowly leans toward her, dragging her up by her arms, hoping to convey his unspoken words with his actions. Sasuke closed his eyes as his lips connected with Sakura's, feeling the tears on her face, and her trembling beneath his lips. At the same time, Sasuke felt an unexpected electrical shock jolt through him.

In response to the sudden kiss by the ever-so-deliciously-irresistible Sasuke, Sakura's breath hitched. Sakura _felt_ it. A strong tingly feeling erupted, from where Sasuke's lips connected onto hers, warming her whole being. Sakura liked this feeling, the feeling of warmth, this comfortable feeling, and... exhilaration. What it is she doesn't know, but all she knows is, she wants more. Timidly, Sakura pressed her lips into Sasuke's, with just a little more force than necessary, surprising them both. And that was what spun the situation out of control.

Fuelled by her adrenaline rush, Sakura placed her hands on Sasuke's forearms, lifting herself up as she let herself slide deeper into Sasuke's warm embrace. He smirked slightly, wondering if his patient really was traumatized, or just looking for an excuse to make out with him. Either way, he certainly wasn't complaining about this encounter with the pink-haired beauty. Returning her kiss with overwhelming force, Sasuke turned his head to the side, allowing their lips to meld together, deeper than before. The hands on his forearms lifted, only to return to the wide expanse of his back, pulling him closer to her. Sasuke wanted more. Dissatisfied with only kissing, he subtly unzipped her sweater, pulling it off to reveal her creamy shoulders under the straps of her blank tank top. The cold air hit Sakura's bare skin, startling her.

She raked her nails across Sasuke's back, attempting to make him release his hold on her sweater, but he refused to release her from his passionate embrace. Sakura angrily bit down on his bottom lip, as hard as she could until she tasted blood; he pulled sharply away as he felt the pain. She felt so weak. So vulnerable. So easily taken advantage of. Sakura looked up at Sasuke, her face filled with anger and hurt, his of astonishment and pain. She stumbled out of the bathtub, pulling the curtains back further to allow her leave. Slipping on the tiled floor with her wet and dripping feet, she almost fell forward until something grabbed onto her arm, steadying her. Looking back, she saw Sasuke's arm reaching out, holding her steady. Tearing her arm from Sasuke's grasp as if it burned her, Sakura flung open the door with a bang and ran down the hall to her room, her sanctuary, a door with a lock on it.

Sasuke stared at the door that Sakura had just left from, filled with disbelief at what had happened. He inwardly winced as he tried to move his tongue to lick the wound that Sakura had just inflicted. _Damn that's gonna sting for a while. Doubt I'm going to be eating salty things anytime soon either. _A sharp pain made Sasuke grit his teeth as he twisted his torso to turn the faucet off for the showerhead now spurting forth only cold water. Shit. The after-effects of Sakura's "rakings" seem to have made an impact on his movements involving the upper half of his body. Without lights to aid him in seeing the damage done by Sakura's nails, Sasuke turned his back to the shower, knowing the shower will wash away the blood dripping from the wounds. Grabbing fresh towels from the rack in the shower, he tied one around his waist and shoulders. He then headed for his own bedroom, passing Sakura's along the way. Nearing Sakura's room, curiosity took over as his steps went closer to her supposedly locked door. Feeling something wet under his feet, he assumed it was water, hopefully from the wet clothing she's shed. As much as the wounds hurt on his back, Sasuke didn't want her to catch a fever that might kill her.

"Sakura, dry off before you sleep so you won't catch cold, got it?"

Receiving no response, Sasuke padded noiselessly down the hall to his room. Before entering, he gave one fleeting glance at Sakura's door, ears strained to hear any sort of movement from her room. Hearing nothing, he shut his door with a resounding click. Unearthing a pair of sweatpants from one of his drawers, Sasuke threw aside the towel around his waist and put them on. Sitting on the edge of his bed, bending over with his forearms resting on his knees, Sasuke started to reflect on what had happened in the washroom.

_Did I kiss her of my own accord? Why'd I do that? But I mean she was kissing me back, right? She couldn't have minded me kissing her if she did that. Maybe she just didn't want to admit that she _liked_ being kissed. That still doesn't really tell me why she bailed out on me halfway through. Damn it. Where'd my psychology books go? Maybe I'm really outta practice; I should go study them again before I do anything else. _

Frustrated by the lack of answers and the many more questions that followed his reflections, Sasuke attempted to turn on the lights in his room. Having forgotten a blackout was still happening, even with the thunderstorm gone, leaving rain in its place; he angrily threw the towel on the floor. Flinching at the pain his actions brought upon his misshapen back, Sasuke tried to ignore the pain as best he could and launched himself face first onto the bed, head hitting the pillow. Not risking putting on his shirt since he knew it would stick to his back when he got up in the morning, thus the chance of reopening his injuries. Shoving aside his pain and infinite questions, Sasuke switched his objective to be able to land some sleep.

After two hours of unsuccessful tries to nod off, Sasuke carefully let himself off the bed, jarring his back a bit. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke headed for the door, kicking aside the towel he threw on the ground earlier. Entering the hallway, Sasuke proceeded to Sakura's room and knocked. Not getting a response that he wanted, the tiny rustling of fabric and such, Sasuke knocked a few more times on Sakura's door. Still unanswered with nothing, not even a sound, he started to get worried.

"Sakura, if you don't answer me in the next few seconds, I'm going to enter." he declared.

No response. Sasuke tried the door and it was locked. _Hn. So I really have to get the key from downstairs. _Turning away from the door and heading for the steps, Sasuke almost slipped on a puddle of water and rammed his face into a wall. Cursing inwardly for his blunder, he ran back to his room and blindly grabbed for the towel on the floor, dropping it on the wet puddle in front of Sakura's room.

Reaching the kitchen, he tried the lights, hoping the blackout was over and the lights would work. Pleased to see that the lights did indeed turn on, he however was not pleased that they blinded him for a few moments. Rummaging through the drawer below the messy drawer of flashlights, matches and candles, he came across seven keys, one he knows that will open Sakura's door for him. Walking quickly back to Sakura's room, he tried the keys until the fifth key fitted into the allotted space of the keyhole. Twisting the key in the keyhole to find it to turn easily, Sasuke let out one last call before opening Sakura's door.

"Sak, I'm coming in now."

Halfway through opening the door, the door's path was blocked by something unseen by Sasuke. Stretching his arm to the wall beside the door, he found the light switch he was looking for. Squeezing himself through the barely opened door, Sasuke thought he would be greeted by a scream, or an object to the face. To his horror, he was greeted by Sakura's body, drenched still from the events in the shower, sprawled across the floor.

"Sakura!"  
_  
Sasuke's debt : £ 398, 784  
Sakura's debt : £ 7, 765, 412_

* * *

This chapter is a really big push to the story line if I say so myself =/ With this, the lemons shall begin :) :) :) *evil laughter* Anyway, there won't be any lemons OR the story if you don't review. So, drop a word or two and the story shall go on!

- _Kanryu_ out 23/09/09


	6. Chapter 6

Hey faithful readers and perhaps new ones! Sorry for the sudden and late update. I didn't get the number of reviews that I wanted, and I am going to say that I am not very happy about that ): Thank yous to the one who did! :D

Nothing much to say here, except that the updates will be quite a bit slower now, since not very many people are reading this story, and the fact that my senior year's homework is piling up!

Disclaimer: do not own.

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**Chapter 6 **

"To what do I owe the honour of seeing you?" Shikamaru lazily asked.

"Cut it out, Shikamaru. We've been friends for a long time, and since you wouldn't accept any money from me for this mission, I'm just treating you lunch. Is even that too much for you?" Itoko exasperatedly said.

He sighed. It's true that they've been friends since they were young, and he didn't approve of Itoko doing things for money. He even tried to stop her, which made her feel more helpless than ever before. However, it was because of this best friend situation that he didn't accept any money from her in the first place. She worked hard to get where she was today, he wasn't tight on money, he had time, and well, he was bored. That's all there is to it.

"You nag like an obaa-chan." He muttered. "We've been together all these years; we've both been there for each other during tough times and everything. I know you don't think our friendship is based on money, but I'm doing this because Sakura's just like a little sister to me. I don't have anything better to do anyway."

"What about your job as the CEO of your father's company?" Itoko teased. "That doesn't seem like a job you can just come and go about."

"Forget about that. Father knows that I can just go to work a week or two in a month and the company will still be going as good as ever."

"It's only because you give them work that you can easily do in a week. For the poor workers, it's a month of hell for them. They probably lack sleep, poor things." she smiled at him as she said so.

"Like you would know."

"Actually, I do. One of your employees quit your company and came over to mine. He said that my company is way chiller and he can work comfortably knowing fully well he doesn't have a Spartan as the boss of the trade."

"I'm a pretty chill person." Shikamaru countered.

"Uncle isn't, and I think they care more about the work they receive than the person who's giving it to them. They know you don't care about your deadlines, but they also know that if they don't hand things in on time, their families would starve."

"Hmn. Okay, I get it, I'll boost up their pay."

"I never told you to do that. You'd make me have a run for my employees." Itoko laughed spiritedly.

"Very funny. So, what'd you want to know about the two so far?"

"Hm?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Itoko; I know you called me out today because you want to know how the two are doing in much more detail than the note gives."

"Well, in a more detailed explanation that I hope you would care to give, just how are they?"

"You always talk too formally." Shikamaru sighed. "Well, to start it off with, Sasuke is quite a gentleman, I must say. He's respecting Sakura quite well, and he even cooks for her. Considering how she almost burnt down the whole house last time, I'm glad that Sasuke's cooking."

Itoko chuckled at this point and motioned for Shikamaru to continue.

"Hmm…Sasuke really knows how to swim and control his hormones." Shikamaru mused.

That caught her attention. "What?"

"Well, there was this one night where the two were in the pool—"

"Sakura was swimming in a pool with a man in her presence?"

"Yeah. Anyway, some things ensued, so Sakura ended up demanding a piggyback ride on Sasuke's night for a few hours in the pool in her underwear I believe. When he got out, he didn't show any signs of having a boner whatsoever."

"Must you use such crude language, Shika?"

"Yes, because I'm too lazy to say erection."

"…Anyway, what happened next?"

"There was a storm the night after that, and it caused Sakura to stay in bed for the whole night. Sasuke was worried about her, but he didn't intrude on her. I hear on the weather channel that they're going to have more thunderstorms tonight. I don't know what to make of it, Itoko; she's still traumatized after so many years. Maybe she really ought to go on pills."

Itoko put her head into her hands. Everything was too much to absorb at once. Sakura was relapsing again, which wasn't good, but she also allowed Sasuke, a man whom she doesn't know, to have fun with her. Not that way, of course, she trusts her sister to look out for herself. Besides, if anything ever happened, she'd have her tae kwon do skills to help her. But to let him see her in her underwear…? This is something totally new to her. At least she's more lax in a sense now.

"No, I don't think she needs to. She can handle everything now, I think."

"If you say so."

"I believe Sasuke can handle everything." Itoko confidently reassured herself and him.

* * *

Sasuke felt completely useless. He had already stripped Sakura of her clothes and wrapped her in a thick quilt, even his own. She was still shivering. He placed his hand on her forehead under the freshly changed towel only to feel that it was _still_ burning hot after six hours if not more. The fever that's plaguing Sakura only seems to be getting worse with every passing second. Her skin was damp with perspiration and her pink locks stuck to her as sweat ran down her face. Her features were strikingly paler than usual.

Rummaging through the first aid box, he found powdered medicine that would help keep down fevers. Reading the back, he hoped that Sakura was not allergic to anything of any sorts. Running downstairs, Sasuke filled a glass with water and rushed upstairs back to Sakura's room. He ripped the package open and emptied its contents into his mouth, water following soon after. Tilting Sakura's head chin up, he closed his lips over hers and released the medicine that he had in his mouth. Making sure that most of it went down and she didn't choke or cough on it, he picked the packet from the floor from where he had left it and read the back once again.

'_Medication can cause drowsiness. Take once every four hours with water. Fever should be almost completely gone after two doses. If not, call your doctor immediately for a shot.'_

"Call your doctor immediately for a shot? Who do I call if we're in the fucking middle of nowhere?" Sasuke angrily said.

"No, get away…" Sakura mumbled.

Sasuke looked at her, his eyes more concerned than angry for the pink haired lady who had nearly ripped his back up. He sat on the edge of her queen-sized bed, with a worried look on his face. First traumatizing experiences and flashbacks, now nightmares while she was sick? He could swear that this whole thing was a joke, but it wasn't funny at all.

Sakura started thrashing wildly under the covers, the towel slipped from her forehead as her head jerked every which way. Sasuke tried to press her down as her movements almost threw the covers off of her. It wasn't her naked body that he was worried about. It just seemed so odd for her to be acting like this, more than her usual self. A hand came up and hit him across his right cheek, leaving three angry red lines; one of which started to bleed. Sasuke hissed at the pain but didn't show any signs to stop the bleeding.

"Sakura!" he shouted. "Come on, snap out of it!"

He knocked his chair down as he difficultly anchored her arms to her side; her head was still freely thrashing about, along with her legs. Sasuke roughly shook her, trying to bring her to his senses before she brought the bed and house down with her wild actions. He wondered if his shouting were for naught, because yelling at a delirious person usually doesn't help with anything. Normally at the hospital, he would've had about two to three nurses holding a patient like Sakura down while he injected her with some fluid that would keep her unconscious and dreamless for the next half a day. How he wished he had those injections now.

Sakura's leg came up and hit him in the ribs, knocking the wind out of him and making him release his hold on her. Staggering, he still reached for her arms, trying to keep her under control. Her thrashing around would only worsen her body system by overloading it with unnecessary work. He once again called out to her, only to have her twitch slightly at his voice.

"Calm down." Sasuke strictly said as he made to put her arms to her side again.

She stilled, her eyes blearily opening to reveal hazy but beautiful and bright green eyes.

"S-Sasuke…?" Sakura uncertainly called out in a voice a bit louder than a whimper.

"Hey." He breathlessly answered. "You feeling all right?"

Tears started to well up in her eyes, startling Sasuke slightly. Was she hurting anywhere? What's going on? She's not going to whack him in the middle of her delirious state, is she? Sakura shook her head in response, the tears spilling out of the prison of her eyes. The bed started to shake as she shivered uncontrollably under the covers. Sasuke cautiously released his hold on them, only to envelop her in a tight hug.

Sakura shook her head furiously into his shoulder as his arms protectively went around her, comforting her. But at the thought of her dream, she tried to pull away from him, afraid that she would taint him. Sasuke held her, trying to calm her down with soft 'shhh' noises.

"I don't deserve you." Sakura mumbled into his shirt.

"What did you say?" Sasuke softly asked.

"I said I don't deserve you!" She screamed at him, her throat hoarse, as she pushed Sasuke heavily away from her.

He looked at her, his eyes full of shock and worry. How is it possible that he still seems so concerned for her at a time like this when she has just pushed him away from her, like she's done with everybody in the past? Even her sister's best friend, who was just like a brother to her. Her head spun, but she forced herself to continue looking at the man who she had opened up to and started to love.

"Why must you think that way?" Sasuke whispered.

That stopped her, she didn't expect him to answer in such a peaceful manner. Most people she knew would've already started yelling at her or even screamed at her. Sakura never wanted to tell him this, she always wanted him to know her as a 'pure' person. All of what she is not. How she envied those virgin girls and how she disdained those who wanted to throw away their virginity, just to flash it at their friends and shove it down their throats. (**A/N**: I am not trying to offend anyone here! Try to think of it from her POV.)

"I was raped when I was seventeen, by my step-father. No…not step-father, just a fucking molester!!!" She continued to shout at him. "How can you say that I deserve someone like you?! One who is untainted by anything!"

Sasuke stood stock still, genuinely surprised by what Sakura had just told him. She was raped when she was seventeen, when he was busy studying for school, patching up his own wounds and trying to fling girls away from him. The woman that he loves is 'tainted' as she claims? No matter what happened to her in the past didn't matter, she's who she is. She's not being a whore or anything of the sort. The fact that she greatly hated the past event just showed that she was still pure.

"You're so foolish."

"…What?"

"How can you say that you're tainted after that one incident? If your heart despises it, and you're not revelling in how he touched you and hurt you, then you're still clean."

"…"

No one's ever told her anything of the sort before. The day after that night, Itoko held Sakura in her arms, crying out her apologies over and over and over again. She was lifeless, the warmth was welcoming, but what could be done? What's happened had already happened. She can't turn back time however much she wants to. Her Mother didn't know anything of it; it was Sakura's decision that she made Itoko not tell her. After that night, she moved out with her sister, away from the protection of her Mother and also away from the man with uncontrolled hormones.

It took her a long time to be able to talk again. Maybe it was months; thankfully she had completed high school a year earlier than most students. She could be what people say a prodigy. Those months were terrible; Itoko would be beside her when she went to sleep and when she woke up. Itoko's eyes were red-rimmed every time they looked at her. It made her want to punch herself for worrying her sister so. Finally, her Mother came for a visit after a few months, and dropped her purse in shock as she saw her daughter gaunt and ghostlike.

Mizaki had run up to her and taken her into a hug with warmth that only a Mother could give. Sakura in return, broke down, spilling her tears and her story to the person she loved most in the world aside from her sister. She cried until there were no more tears, and at that point, Itoko had also confessed how she too, was raped by the man many times. The three then went out for dinner for the last time as a family, without the man around, and that was the last time when Itoko and Sakura ever saw their mother alive.

The will was simple when it was read to the two of them. Mizaki had left the two everything, the company, the house, and the money in the bank. All of the money in the bank that is in Mizaki's account is still untouched. The two never dared use it, even in times of need. Although in times of almost bankruptcy, Sakura urged Itoko to use the money, but instead, Itoko would use other methods to get money to bring back their company. The two of them never approved of it, but Itoko found that a woman's body was the fastest way to money. Luckily, she never got any STDs from the higher ups that would sleep with her for cash.

But all in all, what sort of person would accept one with a background like hers? One who was completely oblivious to her sister's abuse by the man who had also violated her. She never would've thought that there would be a guy like Sasuke, one who would be so open-minded to things like these. The majority of 'normal' men would already have shoved her away and probably used her for more abuse for their stupid raging hormones.

Sasuke sat on the edge of her mattress, his eyes showing hints of kindness in them as he wiped away her tears with his hand.

"You're tired. Get some sleep so your fever will go away and we'll talk then, okay?"

Sakura freed her arms from the quilts and wrapped them around Sasuke, the cool air hitting her damp skin slightly chilling her. Sasuke returned the embrace, his fingertips touched her bare back, but she didn't mind. All that mattered was she was accepted in her world of despair.

"Thank you." Then the medication's drowsiness forced her to fall asleep, in Sasuke's arms.

"There's nothing to be thankful for, it's just the truth." Sasuke mumbled.

* * *

"Okaa-san." Itoko gently said as she touched the engravings on her Mother's tombstone. "I wonder if you're agreeing with my decision now or if you want to hurl lightning bolts at me."

The breeze rustled the translucent wrapping paper of the flowers that rested on the grave. Wisps of her pinned up hair blew into her face, barely obscuring her vision of her Mother's picture. The area was well cleaned, since Itoko would come every week or two to visit her best friend and mother and spill her guts. However, she's never mentioned Itachi to her before, he's never even been here until this time. She almost forgot about him until a hand placed itself on her shoulder reassuringly.

"Oh, by the way, Mom, I brought someone to see you. This is Itachi." She smiled.

"Hey there, ma'am. Nice to be acquainted with you." Itachi politely said.

"Don't mind him, he's just a simpleton that I brought to see you."

"What sort of simpleton would say such nice words to your mom at the first meeting of the parent?" he teased.

"See what I mean?"

"Before anything goes, I want to ask your mom for your hand in marriage."

"W-What?" Itoko whipped herself around to look at her somewhat boyfriend.

"If you say yes, then please visit me in my dreams within the next year." Itachi continued.

"…You're going to make me wait that long?" Itoko sceptically asked. "And what kind of pickup line is that?"

"Well, yes. It also gives your mom more time to decide a yes or no. Are you that eager to get married? You're not even thirty yet. Also, it's not a pickup line."

"Twenty-eight is close enough to thirty."

"Yeah, sure."

"I wonder if this is a good impression, eh, Mom? Do haunt him in his sleep if you don't approve of him. It'll do this conceited ignoramus some good." Itoko joked.

"I'm sure your Mom will love me." He reassured.

"Hmph. Sorry to have to leave in a hurry, but I need to attend a meeting once again. さよなら, Mom. I'll come back when everything blows over."

(**A/N**: さよなら is Sayonara)

Her fingers lingered on the tombstone and she turned her back on it, with Itachi holding her around the waist.

"Hmm…when everything blows over, eh? That'll be another four months sweetie. It might even be shorter, at the rate we're paying off that debt."

"You know, we could pay the debt off much faster, if only you don't go around and start spending on unnecessary things."

"I don't think they're unnecessary things. I'm preparing to move in with Sasuke again after this is over."

"Does that mean we won't see each other as much?" Itoko nonchalantly asked.

"Someone's going to miss me? We'll still meet, just in seclusion; I don't want to let Sasuke in on anything until…you're ready to marry me." Itachi smirked.

"Who said I'll marry you?"

"I did."

"Cocky son of a—"

"You love me for it."

_Sasuke's debt : £ 316, 229  
Sakura's debt : £ 7, 011, 003  


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_

Review review review! It's much appreciated. Five seconds of your time to drop a note is not too bad to further encourage the story, is it? ):

- _Kanryu_ out 16/10/09


	7. Chapter 7

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Life's been preeeeetty hectic on my side. The next two months consist of continuous exams and lots of insomniac nights :D :D :D Oh how envious I know all of you must be~ I really kid. I have 15 exams within the next 3 weeks of May and after that I have another 9 exams before the month of June is over. The reason for so many exams is because I decided to challenge myself to the brink of death and see if I could fulfill the challenges that this academic program had in store for the keener kids. Regret? Oh yeah. Like never before buddy. As much as I hate to say this, you won't see me around for the next two months - cough - basically not until summer holidays.

Also, my life is out of control. A lot of things are crammed into the repair section and many series of events need to be chronologically addressed too. If you don't see me back right at the beginning of summer, please do keep in mind I am a soon to be student trying to earn money to support myself in my first year of university. Finding a job is such a chore. It's not working that I mind, it is the psychological impact that stays intact when various companies have not contacted you or have rejected your proposal due to the economy. Oh economic recession, economic recession, when will you leave?

Hence, if my words were too indirect, I mean **I am going on a 2-3 month hiatus**.

All stories will undoubtedly be finished, and I am sorry for my erratic updates or...lack thereof, but please try to understand that I have things to do off of this site.

Now, another thing before the next chapter begins. This chapter isn't as long as how I want it to be, because I want to separate it. The next chapter is unwritten, because for once, I am allowing the readers to make the decision on what they want next chapter. There won't be very much leeway in how the story is written after the next chapter though or in any other stories of mine. **_Would you guys prefer a fluff scene or a lemon scene next chapter? Either one works, but I will not have both. Kindly leave your opinions and feedback of this chapter in a review._**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I'm glad they've made it to the Pain arc in Shippuden :)

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**Chapter 7**** - _Just One Night_**

* * *

Green eyes fluttered open to see a dark-haired male hovering above her. Her dry lips cracked into a small smile at the sight of him. She felt a little warm underneath the heavy covers, but she supposed it was better to be too warm than too cold.

"So are you delusional or sane today, miss?" Sasuke gently mocked. What a way to start a day.

"Whichever you prefer." Her voice sounded small and croaky in the silent room.

"Sanity is more appreciated on my list than the other." He held out a glass of water to her before setting it down on the bedside table. His hands worked to help Sakura sit up, propped up by her pillows.

Sasuke handed the glass of water to her pale hands and watched her drink all of the contents.

His hand came up to her forehead after she set the glass down.

"Your fever's gone down." It was a statement, not a question. There was a sense of relief intertwined in his words.

"I feel fine." Sakura tiredly said. "Have you slept?"

"Hn." Sasuke eyed her tentatively.

"Hmm?" Her eyelids threatened to shut on her.

"Sleep."

"I'm fine." Her voice wavered.

"No patient should argue against her doctor." Sasuke finalized.

"Hm…" Sakura was already slipping…slipping into a world protected by this young man in front of her with the velvety smooth voice.

A hand suddenly came in contact with hers, her eyes briefly fluttering open before realizing it was only Sasuke. He held onto her hand as she drifted off to sleep, and even a little time after.

If only time would stall for more than the few months they have left.

The low rumbling of thunder could be heard in the distance. The trees swayed in the moderately strong wind as the leaves whispered audibly, creating a sense of dangerous stillness. Flower petals torn from respective flowers ripped across the lush green grass in a rush of wind; a variety of different colours brightened up the dark green landscape.

Lightning flashed across the dark grey sky, illuminating the late afternoon horizon. Each flash brightened up the interior of the summerhouse, but the storm was not yet close enough to shake the lone building.

Sasuke stopped working and walked to the double glass doors as he looked outside. Summer weather at its best, he really enjoyed watching the miracles of nature. Consecutive thunderstorms in a row annoyed him though, not that it mattered if they were during the day or the night. During the night, the ear-splitting cracks of thunder would keep him from resting. During the day, he would be confined indoors with nothing to do.

Soft footsteps padded gently down the stairs and reached the carpeted bottom.

He turned around and looked at the seemingly frail woman standing opposite of him. She had just stepped out of the shower, her hair damp with a towel around her neck to prevent droplets of water from staining her clothes. A white t-shirt covered her torso while grey sweats comfortably hugged her hips.

"You fine with this?"

No response.

"…It'll be okay. You're here." Sakura shyly said and sat on a stool adjacent to the kitchen island.

That was as close to a confession that Sasuke could probably and currently receive from her.

She closed her eyes and placed her head on the hard surface of the island's counter, its presence seeming to calm her. Sasuke slightly smiled and walked around to the other side. He poured hot tea into a mug and sipped it. His hand found its way to settle lightly but caringly on the top of her head, the action feeling to be so ordinary and so _right_.

The lights started flickering.

Sasuke's eyes momentarily shifted to them before he closed his eyes.

"Electricity might go out soon." He absentmindedly threw out.

"Really now?" She mumbled. "What's for dinner?"

"Candles."

"What the –"

"Find them and we'll set up the table. Or else, no food." Sasuke retracted his hand and walked off, leaving a sulky Sakura in his wake.

"I just got better!" She huffed.

"Exercise more." Sasuke humoured.

"Damn Uchiha." Her eyes softened at his retreating back.

The electricity did not go out yet, but still, candles were used for illuminating the dinner table instead of the ceiling lights for safety measures. There was no red wine or any alcoholic beverages; hot tea replaced the warm feel that only alcoholic drinks could supposedly bring. Half-finished plates of corkscrew pasta lay in front of their respective owners.

Sakura picked at the remains of her dinner with her fork. Rather, she was looking down at her food, which made it seem a little weird.

"Not up to your tastes?" Sasuke nonchalantly threw out.

She shook her head, pink treads slipping over her shoulders. "No…it's not that."

Sasuke waited for more. He noticed that the digital numbers on the stove behind Sakura were out. Another blackout. A bright bolt of lightning appeared rather close to the summerhouse. Sakura merely looked up from her food and at the light. A resounding crack of thunder shook the house a few seconds after.

"It's been…a long time since I could do this." She finally admitted.

"Hn."

"You don't mind if I don't finish eating this, do you?" Sakura motioned towards her unfinished dish. "It's really good, but –"

"Over eating's unhealthy." Sasuke mused and took her plate and finished the remains with ease.

"Hey, I'm still sick! Don't eat that!" She argued.

"I have a better immune system." He began to clear up the plates from the table and dumped them into the sink, running water from the tap over them.

"Jerk." She felt strangely at ease in his presence. It made her want to comfortably doze off. How should she put this…perhaps he is contagious to her?

"Hn. There are movies in the cabinet under the TV." His hands were busy cleaning the dirty dishes in the candlelit room.

Sakura slid off her chair and sauntered over to the cupboard underneath the plasma screen and opened it. DVDs were stacked neatly on top of each other and for some odd reason, they were categorized by what genre the movies were: thriller, horror, action, adventure, fantasy, fiction, sci-fi, and chick flicks. She shuddered at the last one and started sorting out through the horror stack. Paranormal Activity 2007, Cloverfield, Grudge, Grudge 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Ring, SAW VI, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and Jennifer's Body. A frown brushed her features the moment she saw Jennifer's Body. No way in hell were they going to watch that.

Without a second thought, Sakura picked out Paranormal Activity and thrust the rest of the movies back into their original spots in the glass cabinet. Moments later, a hand whisked the DVD out of her hand. She whipped her head around in surprise.

"Paranormal Activity, huh?" It was hard to see Sasuke with his back towards the candles; his features were shadowed by the way he stood.

"Yeah, unless you want to watch Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." She lightly laughed at the title. Pride and Prejudice was a good novel and movie, but the thought of adding zombies to it just destroyed the mood.

Sakura stood up and curled up comfortably on one of the white seats.

"The electricity's out." Sasuke stated and placed the movie on the coffee table.

"Oh. Is it?" Her forehead creased as he let her acknowledge the power outage.

He didn't answer her and simply walked over to the dining table where he blew out the candles, extinguishing the last light source. Everything was now illuminated by the settled storm; only flashes of lightning threw the interior of the house in partial view. Sasuke watched her actions attentively.

The hair on the back of her head prickled from anxiety and fear. She never truly liked being in the dark after what had happened with that man. Sakura righted herself from her relaxing posture and hugged her knees with her arms. She buried her face in her arms. If only such memories and scars could be erased from her, it would be just perfect, no, more than just perfect.

The sudden sagging of the couch made her look up in surprise. In his hands, Sasuke had two cups of tea. He pressed hers into one of her clammy hands and shifted over to allow her some privacy. Their silence was interrupted by the thunder, but Sakura wondered why it was this peaceful between them. Why hasn't he said or asked anything?

"Aren't you going to ask?" She quietly whispered.

"Should I?" His voice was steady and calm.

Sakura darkly chuckled. "I suppose not."

Sasuke briefly looked at her before saying, "It's better to wait than force one to talk."

She tilted the cup back into her mouth and drank half of it in one swallow: Earl Grey, one of her favourites. Her legs switched positions so she could sit Indian-style on the warm couch. Her arms held the cup of tea in both her hands at the middle of her legs.

"I attended the Academy when I was 13 and graduated when I was 16. I didn't make very many friends, for I was quite a bit younger than they were. Like I said before, Okaa-san and onee-chan never let me do anything but study at home."

"…"

"When I was 15, a man by the name of –" She suddenly went still, her body rigid at the thought.

Sasuke knew that he was treading dangerous grounds, but he just waited, waited for her to continue. If he touched her right now, she would be shocked and shy away from him. That would be the worst thing for her to do right now. In order to overcome her nightmare, she must be willing to talk about it, or the bottling of it will drive her over the edge someday quite soon from what he could see.

"–by the name of Kazuya Hiruko met Mother. The moment I met him, I could tell there was something wrong, but I could never phrase it into words. His hands would always linger near Itoko nee-chan and me and…he'd always try to touch us. I tried to disregard it as a fatherly motion, but in time, I just couldn't look at him or be in the same room as him anymore. It was disconcerting." Sakura quietly recited.

"…"

"Something started being a bit different with Itoko about a year in…she would always be in the bathroom and stay there for long periods of time. Whenever I asked her about it, she brushed it off as her only being a woman and that it was normal. Okaa-san never said anything about it; she was so happy around him that I didn't object or voice my opinions to her regarding…him. When Okaa-san asked if I liked him, I'd only smile and agree with her that I did." The cup went empty as she tipped the rest of it into her mouth; the cup was placed on the table.

Sasuke blankly stared at the cup on the table.

"Another year later, when Okaa-san was out for a meeting, Itoko nee-chan and I were left at home alone with the man. It was during a thunderstorm, the electricity was out, and I wanted onee-chan to watch the storm with me. I–I went upstairs to find her, and I thought she was in the bathroom again since the door was closed." Her eyes slid out of focus for a mere moment before she pulled herself back together.

"It seemed like that Itoko nee-chan wasn't in the bathroom after all." Her voice suddenly went harsh. "I opened the bathroom door and just at that moment, the clip in my hair fell out and I had to look for it in the dark. I unsuspectingly went into the lion's den, as people would call it."

She took a deep breath and continued.

"I was grabbed from behind and pressed to the wall; he pinned me down. His hands were everywhere and – he kissed, no, molested my body as he took out his urges on me. My hands were held above my head and – he – he ripped off my clothes at his leisure. Then…then..." Her voice trailed off and Sasuke saw her hands fist the material of the couch in her hands.

"Everything hurt after that. There was no pleasure, there was only pain, and I slowly drifted off from it." It was only a soft whisper now.

"After, I found nee-chan hugging me, telling me how sorry she was. She was a complete mess. Well, I can't say I wasn't a mess at that time." A light but cruel laugh. "We left that night and rented an apartment somewhere; a place where we were alone without the presence of a man with sickening thoughts and actions. I didn't figure out that nee-chan routinely experienced what I had that night until a few months later when Okaa-san decided to visit us due to worry. Itoko nee-chan had been telling her that we decided to move out suddenly because we had wanted her to have more time with that filthy creature."

A lone tear dropped onto the soft covers of the sofa.

"O-Okaa-san visited us and we spilled everything to her. All three of us became a complete mess, but it felt better to have a burden off our chests. It felt worse to tell Mother that her lover was such a thing. We went out to eat after the confessions and Itoko nee-chan and I went home after saying goodbye to Okaa-sama." Another pause. More tears dropped onto the settee.

"Okaa-sama died in a crash in the middle of the night. The two of us rushed to the hospital, but it was already too late. She was already certified dead by the time we arrived. It seemed that because of our confession, our family shattered. If we hadn't said a thing, life might have been better. We never bothered going to see the man's body. There was no need. His family members took care of him. If only they had taken care of him even more." Her voice was tight with anger for the latter.

He silently watched her.

"Onee-chan couldn't handle the company at the age of 21, but she insisted. Then she ended up going into debt with other companies, but never once did she use the money Okaa-san left behind to help support it. Every time when the debt got out of hand, onee-chan would…shall we say…use her womanly wiles to get what she wants?" She bit her lip. "That's basically everything there is to tell."

The air tensed, as if she was waiting for him to mock her, tease her, and humiliate her.

Hadn't what he said before assured her of anything?

Sasuke stretched his arms towards her and enveloped her in a tight but comforting hug. Sakura stayed stiff in his arms; she diligently tried to hold back her tears from him, for she did not want her weak side to be shown. Her arms struggled to push Sasuke back from her, to release her. He only held her even tighter.

"You're strong." He quietly said. "But that's what makes you easier to break, Sakura."

She blinked once; a tear slid down her cheek.

_Why can I trust your words, Sasuke? Why?_

"I will–" He paused. "–pick up your broken pieces, Sakura."

His voice was breathless, but soothing. Soothing enough to the point where she just allowed herself to break.

Her hands trembled as they fisted the back of Sasuke's shirt. Tears spilled from her eyes and dampened his shirt as she buried her head into his shoulder. Never before had she told an outsider of her issues, and not one that she's only met for a few months at that. It felt nice to empty her burden with someone that she could trust.

Was there…really a need for tears with him here?

Why was she so calm with his presence?

_What is this feeling?  


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I'm truly sorry for not updating for half a year. Please kindly review and remember to throw in whether you guys want a lemon or a fluff scene! See you soon ;)

- _Kanryu **01/05/2010**_ 1:36am


	8. Chapter 8

Late Merry Christmas! I hope all of you will have a Happy New Year!

I am _extremely_ sorry for not updating in almost two years, for I have been on a writer's block for quite some time for this story. I am actually still not very sure where this fanfiction is headed towards, but since I've promised an update since this summer...I will uphold my supposed return from hiatus. For the poll from last chapter, where I asked if readers would prefer to have a fluff scene or a lemon scene, I have decided upon a fluff scene, as it is reasonable that after a confession of being raped, a lemon would seem too inappropriate for such a delicate situation.

Disclaimer: I don't own.

Please read and review! It's always nice to know if my writing abilities have diminished any since I've last updated!

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**Chapter 8**** - _Just One Night_****  
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"I don't want to play soccer." Sakura adamantly said. She crossed her arms over her chest in a determined manner.

Sasuke expertly juggled the soccer ball with his legs as he glanced at Sakura, his eyes squinting in the glaring sunlight. "You break boards and bones with your hands and feet, yet you don't want to play a less violent game such as soccer." He skeptically mused.

"Tae Kwon Do is not as violent as you make it out to be!" She huffed.

"Hn." He really did have doubts about that. "Did someone hit you in the face with one?"

She immediately blanched at his remark, and he knew he had hit the spot.

"So, someone did. I won't hit you there."

"What do you mean you won't hit me _there_? Are you already planning on hitting me elsewhere, then?" Sakura pouted and sat down on the green grass.

"If you sit down, it's easier for me to hit you." He seriously but mockingly responded.

"You wouldn't dare." Her voice was uncertain.

Sasuke nudged the ball a few feet off the ground and whipped his foot up. The abused soccer ball flew right past Sakura, who simultaneously ducked and screeched in fright as the sphere whizzed past her head, and bounded off the shed only to roll on the grass and stop beside her. She lifted her head cautiously and spotted the ball beside her. In response, she snatched the ball and stood up, and threw it as hard as she could at Sasuke, who easily bounced the globe off his front forehead and caught it with his hands.

"See? I didn't hit you." His tone was one of amusement.

Sakura ran up to him and initiated a series of fist-beatings on his chest. He had dropped the ball before she reached him, and it lightly dropped onto the grass, the lush field silencing and cushioning the fall of the circular object. He gently but firmly grabbed her wrists to stop her belligerent actions and patiently waited for her tantrum to stop. She tenaciously glared at him, but her anger dissipated when he gave her a light kiss on the forehead. Her movements stilled momentarily, before she let out a breath of resignation.

She pulled her wrists away from him and plopped down onto the grass on her back. The clear, blue sky ensnared her interest for a moment, before Sasuke too, laid down on the field beside her. The vastness of the endless horizon always fascinated her, but right now, for the first time, it seemed to be her first time to truly revel in such a miracle of nature. Her freedom, unrestricted by anything, was a Godsend. To be accompanied by such an understanding person, a man, in this place out of all places, was another thing that she could not have hoped for.

_Sasuke drew back from the embrace after a while to look at her. Her head was down, and small sniffles could be heard even in the raucous storm. He cupped her face with his hands and tilted it upwards, his onyx black orbs gently looking into her clear green ones. They were wet still, but were not as full from before._

_He slowly leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, an estranged gasp coming from her as he closed in the distance between them, his arm wandering to hold her around her waist. She tensed at the sudden intimacy, but soon yielded to his touch; the temptation to be loved by one who you also cared about was too tempting to let pass. Her trembling hands shakily circled his middle as they broke apart, pulling him closer to her in an even tighter hold, the warmth radiating off of his body oddly comfortable for her. Her head slid down to rest just at the centre of his chest, his heartbeat a little quicker than she thought was normal for a human, but it didn't matter; it was an anchor for her tumultuous self._

_Sakura listened to his quickened heartbeat for minutes before it started slowing down to a steady pace; its steadfast beat gently lulled her to sleep, the thunderous claps of lightning barely audible as his heartbeat overtook her senses. She found her vision dimming, her eyesight becoming blurry as her eyelids struggled to keep her from falling to a hopefully dreamless sleep. The arms around her tightened, the additional reassurance the trigger to let her fall, fall, and fall into nothingness._

The silent whispering of the wind comforted the two inhabiting the verdant meadow. Thin blades of vibrant green squeakily rubbed against one another, murmuring countless stories to the ears that were close enough to listen. The buzzing of a bee contently flying in the open space only added to how far away they really were from urban areas. A blob of pink let out a soundless rush of air simultaneously as Sasuke shifted to rest his head on her abdomen area.

"You're heavy." Sakura half-heartedly objected. Her hand meandered to place itself closer to him and started stroking his hair affectionately.

"Hn." He smiled. "Soccer horror story…?"

Her mouth scrunched up in distaste, but she did not stop from answering. "When I was six, I was in community league soccer, this guy was corner kicking, and I got hit in the face."

"You played community league soccer when you were six?" The day just kept looking better with every passing second. He could already imagine her dressed in a dark green jersey, black shorts with knee-high socks, and twin pigtails on either side to keep her hair in check.

"Yes, I was sportive, Sasuke." She almost snorted.

"And?"

"And what?"

"You're keeping the rest of the story to yourself."

Damn that Uchiha.

"No, I'm not."

His hand somehow, started creeping up her shirt even at the odd angle he was to her, tickling her. Sakura immediately slapped his hand away, but with one gone, the other just seemed to take its place.

"Sakura…"

She squirmed uneasily before she yielded in a less than satisfied tone. "Okay, okay! He corner kicked me twice in the face! The first time, the coach came over and asked how I was, and I said I was fine, so I just stood up and waited for him to corner kick once more. Then, the second time, he kicked the ball into my face _again_, and I fell on my knees crying. My coach led me onto the bench, and I watched as the same guy kicked the ball the third time, and hit _another_ girl in the face. Are you happy now?"

Sasuke shook with foreseen laughter and an onslaught of amused laughter ensued. Sakura felt an odd buzzing sensation on her skin, and it tickled her, much to her disapproval. His cries of mirth rang loud and clear in the empty field and she abruptly sat up, his head sliding from her belly to her thighs. When she caught a glimpse of his features, a small smile brushed its way across her face. It was enthralling to see him so carefree.

"Mou, stop laughing, Sasuke-kun." The suffix that she only used perhaps once or twice surfaced and wedged its way past her curved lips. "It's my face and my pain receptors we're talking about here."

He brought his arm over his eyes and rested it there for a minute before he finally calmed down enough to speak. As abrupt as she was, Sasuke raised his arm only to pull Sakura's head down to meet his lips with hers. He pulled away and sat up, moving himself off of her thighs; she blushed at the familiarity. Sasuke sat up so that their backs would meet each other instead of their fronts. They leaned against each other for support as another gentle breeze ruffled past them, carrying with it the fresh smell after a rainstorm.

"You're beautiful." He said with a smile on his lips.

Sakura blushed darker and shyly searched for his hand in the grass. "I don't think so."

"Should have used your head." Sasuke pointed out as he took her hand in a gentle grip. "In the right way; you know, the forehead."

Her hand tightened in his. "I was _six_, for God's sake!"

Another bout of laughter left Sakura feeling more and more attached to the man whom she'd only met for a few months, and already, it seems like she's known him for her entire life.

_**X-i-o-n**_

"Grab the blanket, Sasuke." Sakura crossly grumbled.

The piece of cloth that had protected them from the brunt coolness of the house during the night had slipped off minutes before. She subconsciously burrowed herself deeper into the messily covered bed only for one half of her body to be still shivering cold, while the other was on the verge of uncomfortably warm. A pair of arms snaked around her and her back met with a solid front. His warmth was neither smothering nor uncomfortable, and she found this much more pleasant than the untrustworthy coverlet.

"Isn't this better than that?" He whispered into her ear, his breath ghosting deliciously over her skin.

"Let me sleep, Sasuke!" She pouted with her eyes closed.

"As you wish." With that, he swiftly stood up from the bed, leaving a slightly bewildered Sakura in his wake. She immediately opened her eyes in incomprehension and sat up, her legs folding lazily underneath her.

"I'm only complying with your request, hime-sama." Sasuke smirked at her bed-state. So, so cute.

"I meant with me, not–" She started.

"You want me to sleep with you?" He mocked in teasing incredulity as he placed his hand on the doorknob.

"What–no! Why must you twist everything I say?" Her skin flushed a bright pink.

Currently, her pale demeanour was disadvantageous in her favour, but in his, it was something that he could not let pass. Not to add that her wild bed hair made her look younger by five years. The untamed strands matched well with the outfit she chose to wear to bed: the white tank top and blood red short shorts. Her bright green viridian orbs took him by surprise every time he genuinely looked into them; such fire and tenacity could only be in a person who is in love and has great confidence in oneself.

He strode back to the bed and pulled her in for an embrace. She breathed in his scent inconspicuously and relaxed in his arms. Sasuke placed his hand on her head and initiated the process of untangling the many knotted tresses. After a few minutes, Sakura pulled away from him and looked at him accusingly. He already knew what she was going to say before a word could be uttered.

"Why do you treat me so harshly, Sasuke?" She asked in a child-like tone.

Sasuke bent down a little to her ear and blew out a rush of air; he smirked at the almost to none shivering that only an observant person could spot.

"Because, Sakura-_chan_, I'm your very. own. _personal. sadist_." He grinned and slapped her butt as he walked out.

She flushed at his bold feat, before she realized his words and ran out after him. "Are you calling me a masochist, Uchiha Sasuke? Answer me!"

Sakura tumbled down the stairs, her steps thundering throughout the silent but not vacant house. She stepped into the empty kitchen and looked out the glass doors to the pool. Sasuke was pulling out the usual essentials bag out of the pool with the metal pole, his hair flicking this way and that in the morning breeze. To say she was ogling at him was a misconception…appreciating him for who he is would be better terminology.

Sasuke walked in to find a daydreaming Sakura in his wake. He walked by and poked her lightly on the forehead with his index finger. Surprised that she was rudely awakened from her reverie, she stood there for a few seconds before she came to terms with what he had just done to her, and finally remembered why she was standing there in the chilly living room of the house.

She went to sit on the bar stool of the kitchen island while Sasuke unpacked the contents of the bag.

"So, does that mean one of us has to be the masochist while the other is the sadist?" She pouted.

He smiled at her as he robotically emptied the bag of its contents. A small bag was suddenly thrown at her. She, being the unsuspecting and naïve person she was, the bag unceremoniously hit her square in the face.

"Your toiletries."

She sighed and stood from the high stool to walk upstairs with the articles. "And you say you love me."

"You doubt me?" His voice was smooth; it held no trace of uncertainty.

Sakura paused at the stairs and walked up a step, before shyly peeking from behind the wall to look at him. Her cheeks were tinged pink. "Must you make me say it even though you already know, Sasuke-kun?" She quickly flitted to the bathroom before his response could be heard.

Sasuke continued to sort through the things, separating which things needed to be refrigerated and which things did not need to be. As he sifted through the things, he found two cream-coloured envelopes, one of which had his name, and the other with Sakura's. Slipping a utility knife under the flap of the envelope with his name on it, he neatly slit the top open and extracted the blade, the mechanism snapping close with a dull grating noise. He curiously unfolded the sheets of paper with ease, his lazy gaze becoming sharp as he recognized his brother's neat cursive writing.

_Sasuke,_

_I am dearly sorry to be putting you through what you're currently going through. I know that when you've moved out to pursue your medical studies that I have gone too far. As your brother, I have failed to provide you a safe and secured home and a respectable lifestyle, and no matter how many apologies I could give you in my lifetime, it would not be enough to compensate for all the horrible things that you've had to endured after Mother and Father's deaths. I am deeply sorry for your being taken hostage, and I promise that you will be able to quickly and properly return home as a man with an appropriate name and title after this fiasco is over._

_To explain why such things are happening, once again, I've gambled too much, and the loan sharks were too persistent this time around as I did not have enough money to pay off even a fragment of my debt. I am dutifully working on proper business to gain back enough money to pay off my loans to the banks, the loan sharks, and the others that I have unceremoniously borrowed money from. I had hopes that I could have funded your medical studies when you first started, but to my dismay, I had lost even more money than I had anticipated, for I had taken a huge gamble that night to see if I could win money to support the entirety of your studies. But when I heard that you were being funded for medical school due to your astounding grades and school performance, I was never more proud. Due to my circumstances at that particular time, I further apologize for not being there to celebrate with you. Once you are out of the prison you are held at, I will celebrate with you to make up for it._

_This much information is as much as the ones holding you hostage are allowing me to write. I cannot tell you any information of where you are at, or when you will be able to come home. At the rate that I'm paying off the debt, I am hoping that you will be returned to me within a matter of months, as I have already paid off half of the debt owing._

_Hang in there, Otouto._

_With all the love a brother could muster,_

_Uchiha Itachi_

Sasuke crumpled the letter in his hands with his forehead creased, the words on the crisp pages neither hateful nor comforting in any manner. His brother doing proper business? With who? How? Where was the money coming from for him to initiate such 'proper business'? If anything, it worried him more than anything else. He wouldn't even have minded if Itachi had waited for him to finish medical school, and all the money that he would earn after becoming a practiced doctor would go to paying off the debts. Just _what_ kind of 'proper business' is being worked on? If prostitution was 'proper business', then there would be some severance of ties after he is let out of here. Even as a doctor, it would be very difficult to share a bathroom with someone who was sitting on your toilet seat with flaming herpes.

He roughly stuffed the letter back into the envelope, the sachet looking plumper than before as the pages within now held creases. Just as he threw it back onto the counter and turned around to open the fridge, Sakura returned to the kitchen with a smile on her face.

"So, what else did we get this time around?" She cheerily asked as she seated herself on one of the bar stools surrounding the kitchen island. Her smile started sliding as he turned around, the furrows in his perfect complexion worrying her. "What is it, Sasuke?"

"I just received a letter from my brother. I'm assuming yours is from your sister." He threw the items that needed refrigeration into the fridge, and slammed the door shut. He picked up the envelope addressed to the pinkette and wordlessly handed it to her.

"Oh." She deftly ripped open the envelope with her fingers, her eyes quickly scanning the letter with alert eyes. As she was finished, she let out a sigh, a relieved smile appearing on her features. "It's not as bad as I thought. At least Itoko onee-chan isn't sleeping with men this time to obtain money to secure our financials in order to pay off the debt."

"That's good. It will be good for her health if she ceases sleeping with men who are most likely sleeping with numerous other women." He plonked down a mug with a teabag in it, pushing on a button to pump hot water out of a hot water thermos and into the cup, the low humming of the mechanism more distinct than the sloshing of the water landing into the red mug.

"Why do you look so grim about yours, hm?" She placed her head in her arms on the counter, her eyes following the movements of the raven. "If you're not raging, then I'm certain that it can't be the worst that could happen."

"Hn." Sasuke leaned against the counter connected to the fridge so that he could look at Sakura. "Mine bears both good and bad news, I suppose. My brother claims he is performing 'proper business' in order to gain back money to settle the debts, but I cannot think of how he can even have the money to start a proper business, or who he is partnering up with in order to succeed."

"I see…"

"He…also said that he had wanted to fund my medical schooling, but I didn't need it as I received funding from the doctors at the hospital because I had shown so much promise." He reluctantly added before taking another sip of tea.

"You do. I'd trust you with my life." She smiled at him, his heart skipping just a beat at her sincerity.

"It'd be another couple years before I can officially come out to begin my practice. Even though I already do some practice at the hospital, I don't think it will warrant for some of the time that I'd need to complete the requirements as the precursor to becoming a practicing doctor."

"I'm sure it does, you'll just need to prove it by taking some test or whatever, right? If you excel in comparison to the others who have been practicing for the required time period, then you should be allowed to come out as a full-fledged doctor." Sakura reasoned. "Besides, I'm sure your own experience from running away from loan sharks and whatnot have made it so that you're already somewhat capable with fixing up wounds."

"Hn. I don't see you being able to properly dress wounds even though you are in the same situation as I." He casually commented.

"I never had to run. No one knew Itoko onee-chan had a younger sister. She'd never allowed me to be involved, so I was just always stuck at home." She sighed.

"I would have preferred that to what I've been through." Sasuke slowly admitted. "It's better to have one holding down base so that the one prowling the streets would have a greater incentive to come home. It's always nice to know that you have someone to return to, because you know that person needs you."

"Then why did you move out, Sasuke?" Sakura softly asked, her voice a bare whisper.

"Che. I thought it would've forced my brother to stop his gambling and walk a straight road again, but I was a fool to think that he would be able to rid his gambling issue so easily."

"Gambling's an addiction that would sometimes require rehab if it's gone that far, I'm sure you know. People have lost their fortunes, their careers, and their families just because of gambling. It is quite a feat for your brother to admit that he is off of gambling, so I believe you should trust him." She got off the stool and headed towards the double sliding doors to the deck, and turned to look at him as she reached the sliding glass doors. The serene smile that she held took his breath away. "It can't hurt to have just a bit more trust in your brother, Sasuke. I'm sure you would like to place your trust in him, too."

_Sasuke's debt : £ 143,157  
Sakura's debt : £ 4,964,371_

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I cannot promise when the next update will be, but I will always try my best! Much love! Please review x)

_**Kanryu**_ _7:05pm_ _28/12/11_


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